Another club I wish I didn't belong to!

This is getting tiresome, but it looks like there are some folks here who can help.

I'm a 60 year old married guy who has always been very, very active. A few years ago, they discovered I had a congenitally deformed aortic heart valve. In 2007, it got bad enough it needed to be replaced. In July, 2007, I had open heart surgery to replace my valve, fix a resulting aneurysm and a procedure called a maze to eliminate some atrial fibrillation I suffered from off and on. 8 weeks after surgery, I was back on my road bike and back in the gym. 6 months later, on New Years day, 2008, I did my traditional New Year's Day metric century bike ride, which was a little over 63 miles. I recovered really quickly.

On December 1, 2009, I had a very weird fall on my bicycle. We think it was caused by a newly sealed asphalt road. I landed in about the worst way you can and fractured my hip socket. On December 3, they fixed it with 10 screws and 2 plates in my pelvis.

Part of my sentence was a minimum of 8 weeks in a wheelchair, with no weight on that leg. At 7 weeks, I developed a massive dvt in my left leg, from thigh to ankle. That bought me another 8 days in the hospital. I also had multiple PE's, but no symptoms from those. In all, I was off my feet for almost 10 weeks.

My symptoms were mild-a little redness and very minor swelling. Now, about 2 months after being diagnosed with the dvt, I don't have any swelling in my calf or thigh. My knee is swollen just a tad. My foot is swollen, but they discovered when I started therapy that I had broken a bone in it and torn some ligaments.

As I continue with therapy and recovery, I can't tell what symptoms are due to the injury and surgery and what symptoms might be from the dvt. They cut 2 muscles (but sewed them back together) as part of my surgery and those muscles are stiff and sore. My knee and shin area ache, which I think is the dvt. I'm wearing compression hose on that leg.

My question for you folks is if my calf swelling and redness are gone at this point, does that mean the dvt is likely being absorbed? I'm on coumadin for a minimum of 6 months, but they aren't really doing anything else for the dvt. I'm exercising and don't have any problems except pain in the joint, pain in the 2 muscles they cut and the pain in the knee and calf.

Thanks for any advice.

I agree with you 67walkon, I wish I did NOT have to create this club, but I did and you are a member of it, so welcome...

I agree with your prognosis and question, what is causing what here? When multi injuries are all happening at the same time it can be very hard for a Dr. to diagnose it and treat it.
I was the same when I was diagnosed with my DVT, two weeks prior to it, I had strained some muscles in my calf, I was lucky I was able to say, this pain is NOT due to the strain muscles and see my Dr.(also my thigh was 3 time it's normal size, that was a major contributing factor that pushed me to see my Dr.)
You will find that they(the medical community) are doing as much as they can do, even if it does look like they are not doing much, I was involved with two different medical studies and I had lots of medical attention, but nothing was actually done, "take your anticoags and if something out of the norm starts, contact us" was what I was told.
After all the bells and whistle we have triggered, we expect to be monitored and pampered and ... But we are not.Once the clot is fastened to the interior wall of the vein, it's almost like there are no cause to panic anymore,
It almost feels like "Ummmmm, but I almost died back there, you telling me that it's ok, I still hurt and I still swell up, what you mean I am exaggerating?"
I know exactly what you mean...

Hope this helps.
Welcome to YET another club we don't want to be in.