Episode 497: Blood Clot Defeated & Return To Training

So for the review, basically end of June, I was planning on doing a race in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a 100-miler at the Pettit Center, which is, in my opinion, one of the faster spots to chase a fast 100-mile time.

And I flew out a couple days prior to the start of the race.

I noticed that first morning I was there, I went on a 45-- what was supposed to be a 45-minute easy shakeout run.

My left calf started to progressively tighten up to the degree I didn't feel comfortable running on it, so I cut that run short and immediately started thinking, "Okay.

Well, this race is probably not gonna happen." I just know from prior experience when you step on a starting line for a 100-mile race, if you have something that's obviously a problem, it is gonna certainly become an issue.

The 100-mile distance has a-- does a great job of identifying your weakness and exposing it.

So I was very non-optimistic about the reality of that race at that point in time, but I had never really considered blood clotting as something that would be a potential issue for me, so my mind didn't go straight to that.

My mind actually went to somehow maybe I picked up a minor calf strain.

So I had a minor calf strain earlier in the training cycle, but I'd gotten through kind of the bulk of my peaking phase without it being any sort of an issue or concern during my training or recovery between sessions and things like that.

So it also wasn't something that was really on my mind as a potential risk.

But once the discomfort went there, that's where my mind sort of went.

After I officially dropped out of the race and a few days passed, I noticed that the symptoms were not really very consistent with any sort of muscle strain I had had in the past, and it basically was just this low-level throbbing that was constant regardless of whether I was standing, sitting, walking, laying.

It was just always there, and that seemed to be something that was a little bit concerning.

So at that point in time, I decided to go into urgent care and get an ultrasound.

Went in there, they did the ultrasound, found a gl- blood clot that went from my ankle up to mid-thigh.

And at that point, they just sent me straight to the urgent, er- emergency room to figure out next steps, which basically were going to be one of two scenarios, which was if it's bad enough, they were gonna wanna keep me there, probably overnight, maybe more than one day, and actually go in and try to remove that clot.

If it was something where it wasn't progressed far enough or blocking enough of the blood flow getting to my lower extremities, they would put me on a blood thinner and send me on my way.

So I had a little bit of a waiting period of a couple hours going through some of those labs, meeting with the doctors, having them review the ultrasound and determine what that was.

So thankfully for me The clot was big and long, but it did not progress to my pelvis, which is an im-important piece in terms of avoiding some much worse case scenarios, and it wasn't fully blocked.

So for example, they were able to pick up a clear pulse in my foot, which meant that that blood flow was getting past the clot down to there.

So they weren't really worried at that point, since at this point in time they're gonna put me on blood thinners, that it would become a problem beyond that.

So I didn't have to stay in the emergency room any longer than that.

They sent me with a prescription for Eliquis, which is one of the better blood thinners on the market right now.

They wanted me to start out on a high dose, which was ten milligrams in the morning, ten milligrams in the, the evening, and then go back to Austin and visit with my regular doctor and then some specialists to try to answer some of the questions, do some testing to make sure there wasn't something serious or rule out anything that I should be exploring outside of just the fact that I had an active blood clot.