The difference in my leg coloration when first experiencing deep vein thrombosis.

I did go to the ER and have started anticoagulants, with a follow-up appointment already scheduled. I just thought it was interesting how my whole leg turned purple. The coloration did improve (though it’s not quite normal), but this photo was enough to convince the urgent care doc to direct me to the ER. The clot is up high in my femoral vein, so my ultrasound results were all “occlusive thrombus” for literally everything they looked at in my leg.

Edit to clarify: it’s the left leg. It was actually purple, but my phone camera made some rather poor decisions on the white balance.

If you are Asian, the right leg looks healthy. If you are Caucasian, the left leg looks healthy.

Which one is it!

It’s called Phlegmasia cerulea dolens, when it’s pale they term it Phlegmasia alba dolens

Edit: to add to this the risk of getting DVT is when these clots are dislodged and start to move freely in the circulation (embolism/emboli) one of the worst outcomes is them ending up in the pulmonary vessels causing PE (pulmonary embolism) which is fatal if not treated.

Lucky OP is on anticoagulants which helps breaking these clots before they start moving around.

typos

My grandfather’s leg looked like that. Then he died.

That conditions name has me rofl

also left calf is swollen?

I thought you had jaundice, lol

I’ve been dealing with DVT for just over a year, I’m glad you caught it early before things got really bad. When it first happened to me I thought I pulled my calf muscle. Stay safe and remember to get up and move around at least every 2 hours.

Looks like you have both white and Asian skin tones now!

This is exactly what happened to my leg too, I hope you’re on the mend now!

I went to a&e as one leg was purple, I was in agony and couldn’t walk, they told me I was cold and sent me home. A few hours later my leg had doubled in size and was really, really purple. Went back to a&e and they finally did tests and found 4 huge clumps of clots in my groin and thigh, one had reached my abdomen. I had fully occluded and distended femoral and iliac vein, so sounds very similar to yours, mine was my left leg too! They said it was phlegmasia cerulean dolens and I was hours away from losing my leg or worse, which was scary.

Did you get any warning pain before? What was pain like at the point you went to ER? Sorry for questions, I’ve never come across someone who’s had the same as me!

I randomly got a cramp pain in my calf weeks before and jokingly said to my husband “oh god what if it’s a clot?” Then it went away and never felt that again. A few days before the discolouration started I was in agony with my groin and hip, couldn’t weight bear, bend etc. I was young, fit, healthy and bam just happened.

I had deep vein thrombosis when I was 19 because of a certain defect (higher Risk of getting it). Now I still Daily take xarelto 20mg basically Till I die.

I hope you are fine.

My mom had experienced the same thing. She randomly collapsed while walking in hurry to catch a train due to severe pain in her right leg and the ambulance took time to arrive and the hospital she was initially admitted to had no idea on how to treat this and referred to another hospital. All this while she was in excruciating pain, this delay caused clots in multiple areas and eventually had to cut open her calfs on both legs and remove blood clots. She couldn’t walk for 6 months slowly recovered after a year or so.

I really wish something like this never happens to anyone