My critical illness a year ago left with me a chronic blood clotting disorder, which has led to what appears to be a permanently swollen and painful right calf -- even though all my clots have been on my left side.

I'm told that the blood thinner I'm on probably is the only thing keeping the right leg from clotting, and that my veins and circulation are just shot and I need to learn to deal with it.

Well .... I don' wanna.

What I *do* want to know is if anybody has something similar and has any ideas besides compression stockings/bandages and Tylenol. It doesn't seem to matter what I do. I sit, it swells and hurts. I walk a lot, it swells and hurts. Luckily shorts season is brief in Wisconsin, so nobody has to see what a freak I look like with one leg 5x the size of the other. I'm just tired of it hurting all the time and nothing working on it.

I see a new hematologist in early December and am hoping HE has some ideas, but in the meantime, if YOU have any, please pass them on?

ty,

CB