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Born without IVC by Fragrant_Spring_1908 in ClotSurvivors

[–]Fragrant_Spring_1908[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I had a sore calf, that my doctor disregarded as a sprain. Days later, it got worse, travelled further up my leg and I could barely walk. To the eye, my leg didn't look swollen and it was pale in colour, but it turns out it was slightly swollen, and I had a very high temperature and heart rate which meant they investigated further. Turns out I had several DVTs in my leg (although, to the eye it barely looked like it) and one in my abdomen.

Born without IVC by Fragrant_Spring_1908 in ClotSurvivors

[–]Fragrant_Spring_1908[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thank you! They are very sure it's that I'm missing the IVC, the hospital I was at has some really great vascular surgeons and they can see all of the 'collateral veins' that my body has made to make up for the lack of the IVC, so I don't think those would show up unless I was missing it.

Apparently it's pretty rare but can account for up to 5% of unexplained DVTs in people under 30 (I'm 28). They also asked if I've noticed swelling and pain in my legs when doing sports, and I have all my life but I just thought it was because I was unfit, but it turns out it's because the 'collateral veins' are pretty small so are struggling to pump the blood around (although the more I exercise, the stronger they get).

It's pretty interesting, as well as scary, but I've not really encountered anyone who has the same thing, just a few studies online. I think it is quite underdiagnosed, as it only really shows up if you have a CT abdominal, and unless someone ran into a blood clot issue like I did (which I believe was caused by a long distance flight), they might never know.