It's been over 5 months now since I've been officially diagnosed with DVT, and almost 7 months since I developed DVT. I developed DVT on a very long flight on June 12, 2009 and was admitted to the hospital on July 29, 2009. I don't rush to the Dr for every little thing ... I tend to wait until the last minute.

A couple weeks ago I had another ultrasound and the last remaining clot (out of a leg jammed full of clots) is still there, but the veins still look good. The Dr seemed a little bit surprised about that clot and I'll be on Warfarin for a while yet.

But what sent me to have another ultrasound was the fact that my left foot/ankle was swelling up while I was at work. For the month prior to Christmas, and a few days after, I was working long hours and many days in a row, standing all day long. Right near the end of all that, I got compression stockings and really like them. The ones I got are very comfortable, although a bit hot on hot days. They make my leg feel so much better when I'm doing a lot of standing. I waited to get them because I'd heard from others that they are very uncomfortable, but that's not the case at all! I really like them, and would be tempted to wear them even if I didn't have DVT.

Something I'm noticing, however, is that I'm having a lot of trouble picking up where I left off in terms of exercise. I've done four 1200K randonnees, plus all the qualifying brevets, plus racing in 24-hour races, plus being able to knock off centuries whenever I felt like it ... even after not riding a bicycle or doing any sort of exercise for several weeks. I'm used to being able to get on the bicycle .... and successfully complete the ride.

Now I know I haven't done much exercise since the end of May (I rode 1000K in May including an imperial century, a couple metric centuries, and a whole bunch of other rides), but November wasn't too bad ... I did do 500 km in November (including a successful 100K in mid-November), but when I attempted an imperial century at the end of November, it was a very slow and difficult process. My legs just didn't have anything to give me. It took 11 hours for us to complete that century.

Yesterday (Saturday), I tried to ride another metric century but had to call it a day at 88.5 km because of the heat in this area, and because of awful cramping, particularly in my left leg ... the DVT leg. I've never cramped that bad before. I don't know if the cramping was completely because of dehydration and heat ... or if it might have had something to do with that last remaining clot as well.

If you've had DVT, how long has it taken for you to return to your pre-DVT activity and fitness level? Did you experience an increase in leg cramping when exercising?