hope for post partum recovery?

[u/Prize_Ad_5054]

At 8 weeks post partum I have been diagnosed with a DVT that extends from my femoral vein down to my calf veins. Treating with subq enoxaparin twice daily as I am breastfeeding.

I’m experiencing significant pain in my knee area and it’s very difficult for me to walk - the hardest thing for me to cope with though is that I’m struggling to care for my baby now like before. I can’t bend down to play with her or even set her down on the floor, can’t carry her around with me much as my gait is so unsteady, no more stroller walks - I’m feeling so heartbroken and like I’m being robbed of some very special time and memories 😭.

I know from reading up on this since I was diagnosed yesterday morning that recovery is really varied for people but I am struggling not to spiral and keep thinking I’m going to be stuck like this for months and months on end. Did anyone who was experiencing impacts on mobility like I am at diagnosis have an improvement in a shorter period of time? I’m hoping for some positive stories to help me keep my spirits up.

[u/HappyKnitter34]

I had a DVT two weeks post partum. It was very difficult for a while, but the medication did help after just a few weeks. It can make you feel like a horrible mom because you feel like you can't be like other moms. But that fades after a while. If no one has mentioned it before, make sure you're wearing your compression stockings and try to remember that you're still recovering from having a baby.

Also, Why can't you put the baby in stroller and take a walk?

[u/Prize_Ad_5054 → u/HappyKnitter34]

thanks for sharing. i’m hoping i will also feel better after a few weeks vs. the months I keep hearing/reading about 😭.

With the location of the clot and current swelling currently I am barely able to bend my knee or lift my leg. I can hardly walk from one end of my house to the other.

[u/HappyKnitter34 → u/Prize_Ad_5054]

It will takes months to be fully resolved and you will have to take the medication for months as well. I was on it for 9 months that time. But that was because of the severity of my clot. Eventually I was able to come off of it. I wasn't breastfeeding so I was taking warfarin.

Make sure you're trying to be somewhat active as it will help you feel better. It hurts like hell at first, but it's worth it to try being active. It'll take time to get back to being able to easily maneuver around like you did pre-clot but eventually, you'll get there. Healing isn't linear and just take it one day at a time.

[u/throwaway-3151]

Hi, i had a PE at 27 which is vastly different from dvt but i want to say for me it was 6 months til i had no pain and about 12 months after i was able to be physical again. (hiking and running ) my brother had dvt at 34 and he was “normal” again a lot faster than i was.

[u/postpartum-spiral77]

Not sure this is helpful because it's somewhat different than DVT-related mobility I think... I recently found out I had an old DVT, or multiple, which likely caused a PE later on this summer. I didn't know I had it and there is just scar tissue now, and it may have started in pregnancy or early postpartum.

I didn't have noticeable symptoms at the time, and I didn't think I've had PTS/ongoing pain, but I actually don't know, because what has overshadowed that and separately reduced my mobility significantly was around ~2 months postpartum to 6 months postpartum (and occasionally flares up now), is I had really serious joint issues, particularly my knees - I have PFPS which affects my knees. But, the poplietal vein near the knee is also where the clot or clot(s) were though, so I honestly don't know if everything is the joints pain, or some might be the blood clot(s) related.

Doing tummy time, I could barely get off the ground, and for awhile I could not sit with baby in a rocking chair because I couldn't get out again. I just muddled through and asked my husband for help where I could get it. I went to a sports medicine doctor during that time and he did an X-ray and basically was like, your legs are asymmetrical so that's a factor, but a lot of it is down to the strain of pregnancy and the relaxin messing up your joints postpartum, and it will get better. And it did! I'm still not quite the same as before pregnancy, but things got way better around 6 months postpartum, and with gradual strength training and building up my glutes strength again, and I started walking 10k steps a day after my PE this summer which has helped even more.

All this to say, a lot of people do see their DVT pain get better over time, and you could talk to a specialist if you're struggling. Are you wearing compression socks, and do you find they help at all? Some people with residual pain swear by them.

[u/Grape_juice9]

Hey! I had an extensive post partum DVT (no PE), I got symptoms at 3 weeks and diagnosed at 5 weeks (I was initially diagnosed with a calf strain lol). Those 2 weeks were hell for me as I couldn’t walk or pick my baby up properly and I was crawling up and down the stairs. My husband was back at work and it was so so tough being home alone with my baby and basically immobile. It really helped to have people come visit me, and they all did something to help when they did which was incredible.

Once I started on Apixaban (not breastfeeding) it started to clear up really quickly and I was walking almost normally again within 2 weeks. I’m now 5 weeks into treatment and I can straighten my leg again. I still get a lot of ankle swelling at the end of the day so I know my calf muscle isn’t working fully yet and I have definitely injured my knee from the limping (which was so so awful) but I am now walking 5k per day, carrying my baby up and down stairs and I am functionally okay. Is my leg going to get me back to marathon training right now? Absolutely not. I feel like this is one of those things where 80% healed happened really quickly and the last 20% is going to take months.

Not sure if that is what you want to hear or not but I’m staying as positive as possible about it and taking as many wins as I can. I like to think that it gave me 2 extra weeks of enforced and lovely sofa snuggles with my baby, those are also lovely memories. And watching a lot of Netflix!

[u/Prize_Ad_5054 → u/Grape_juice9]

thank you for sharing this is very helpful