Calf And Behind The Knee Pain. No Swelling Or Tenderness. Symptoms Of DVT? Be Worry?

Posted on Wed, 27 Jun 2012

Question: Hi,
I am a 26 year old male, around 5'9 and 150lbs. For the past 3-4 weeks I have been having calf pain in my right leg, which sometimes goes into my XXXXXXX and behind my knee, and thigh occasionally. I have seen my family doctor who thought it was a pulled muscle from me doing some light exercise, and thought my muscles were tight and I needed to stretch. I have since seen a sports medicine doctor and he said he thought I pulled my calf muscle or maybe teared it? He put me in a compression stocking and says I need to see him back in a month.

I am a big worrier and have been reading lots online which is not very smart I know, I have convinced myself I have the symptoms of a dvt in my leg. I don't have swelling or really any tenderness, warmth of skin etc. When I pull my foot up towards me it is painful but that might be the swollen calf. And we have no history of blood clots in my family. What is the chances of me having this dvt? Can it last for a matter of 3-4 weeks with nothing ever coming of it? Or am I imagining things, it seems that two doctors would have mentioned something if they thought I had one.

many thanks

Answered by Dr. Pragnesh Vachharajani (14 hours later)

Hi XXXXXXX

Thanks for posting your query.

I can appreciate your concern. You are a gennext patient who searches online about his physical aliments and then discuss things with the doctor. In fact people like you make things lots easier for doctors like us.

I will try my best to help you.

First of all I do not see any reason to worry. Same as you I am also not convinced that you having DVT.

DVT is entirely a different thing as you have read online; there is always pain and swelling in the affected leg. And in most of the cases one can fine a reason for development of DVT.

Just try to feel your calf muscles, they must be soft to feel, having normal skin over them and there is no warmth or redness. Some pain may be there but they will not be sore.

Your doctor is right, what you could have is pulled muscle or some injury to muscles which might have lead to some swelling in them.

Please continue the treatment as advised and I think you should be fine.

Still in case you are pretty much concerned you can discuss with your doctor about going for Doppler examination of your leg which will clarify your doubts. Fortunately in bigger center like Bangalore this facility is readily available with any good radiology center. Again the test may be costly but still will not cost fortune and you will have peace of mind.

In my opinion you do not need this at present.

Please keep regular follow up with doctor and you will be fine.

I hope, this answers your query. I will be glad to reply any follow up queries that you have.

In case you do not have any further query, please accept the answer.

Wishing you good health and speedy recovery.

Regards,

Dr.Pragnesh

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Yogesh D