Hope this might help some one else. My symptoms were like a cramp above the ankle, like something wrapped around my leg tightly. A crampy sensation which moved up my leg. I had excruitating pain in my hip, right above the leg joint. Legs would go to sleep or go numb when walking. Pain in hip came when walking a distance but not noticeable otherwise. The cramps and numbness were the two most common things which seemed to stay with me all the time. Off and on. Sitting or laying down seemed to help. If on my feet a lot then more cramps and numbness . This came about after having back surgery. After 4 months I got kinda tired feeling a lot, almost like being depressed , not wanting to go and do things I enjoy doing, had to kinda force myself to go do my hobbies. Got tired easily, legs were getting worse, like they just would give out on me and become real heavy and hard to move. I think this was all the beginning of my pulmonary embolism which hit full blast 6 months after surgery. I was misdiagnosed by 3 Drs , all thinking it was post op problems and some nerve damage or healing, One Dr diagnosed it as inflammation. It came on real slow, hardly noticeable till the last month. I never was that short of breath until maybe the last 4 weeks. When properly diagnosed, I had ran a fever for 18 days, been given antibiotics. Fever didnt go away, came at night along with pain at first in my upper shoulder, then moved into the middle of my back, thought I was having a heart attack at first but then pain subsided. Next day pain moved down in my side then to the other side, under my rib cage. A ct scan found the embolism which was ordered by my primary care physician. I was there for a yearly physical exam and my heart rate and blood pressure was way elevated. I think the clot formed sometime after surgery, which I was mainly confined to bed rest for the first month following surgery, only allowed up an hr at a time 4 times per day. Thats an hr sitting up at a time. No walking or moving around, If I had not made the appt for my physical exam that day I might not be here today. No awareness of this situation, all new to me, shock to find out I had blood clots in my lungs,. I was hospitalized immediately for days. You don't always feel pain, I had no swelling, redness, no shortness of breath. If only I had known then what I know now the embolism possibly would have never happened. I could have been put on blood thinners which could have prevented that from happening. I truly hope that anyone seems to think there might be a clot or something wrong , go for test and don't leave with out getting a proper test, D-Dimer, ultrasound, or ct scan. Don't ever take for granted its nothing or take its a healing process of surgery because it could be something much worse such as the case with me.
