Katie Dobson

Katie tries again!

As some already know, in early March I was diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and pulmonary embolism (PE), blood clots in my left calf and in both lungs.

When I was diagnosed, I was originally training for the Manchester Marathon, with training going perfectly and as a 24 years old who has always been active, loved running and exercise, it came as a complete shock.

A few weeks prior to my diagnosis I had been skiing and had driven back from France with stops every 2/3 hours. Once home, I started my training plan again and had no issues however a few days after a long run I started to get tightness at the back of my calf. After resting the calf, the pains cleared and I started going back to the gym and exercising. Following swimming and a gym session on a Wednesday, the pains were back. I thought originally it was just the muscle soreness from starting the gym again. Over the weekend my leg started to swell and become discoloured, progressively getting worse.

On the day of my diagnosis (Monday), I had been to urgent care, specifically asking to rule out a DVT due to my leg becoming swollen and discoloured, I was turned away within 5 minutes with it being a calf strain.

Luckily I had a physio appointment already booked for the same day for a check up who looked at my calf, measured it, conducted a Homan's squeeze and instantly believed it was a DVT, sending me to A&E with a letter. My d-dimer blood test came back at more than 4,400, suggesting a very high potential of a DVT (with further tests booked in for a 100% diagnosis) The following day I had chest pains and after X-rays and a CT scan, the clot had broken off and made its way into both my lungs. I know if I didn't have physio on the Monday, I may not have been so lucky.

After having to take 4 months off running & any exercise, I am happy to be back and running the London Marathon 2027 for Asthma and Lung UK to raise awareness that DVT and PE's can happen to anyone even if they do not meet the 'specific' criteria. 

Thank you for reading and any donations are appreciated! 🤍