20-Years-Old With With May Thurner Syndrome

My name is Maria and I’m 20-years-old. I am from the island of Puerto Rico. I will be sharing my story of how I found out I have the May Thurner Syndrome.

It was December 15, 2016 (by then I was 19-years-old) that I went for a jog on my college campus. At the time I didn’t feel anything odd. The next day I felt some pain in my leg but I just assumed it was from the exercise I had done. Over the next few hours, I started noticing how my left foot had suddenly became swollen. It wasn’t until December 20th that I realized something was not normal.

However, that same day I was leaving for a trip to Florida, there, I used a wheelchair throughout the whole time and rested as much as possible thinking I had a torn ligament (I could not go to any doctors there since my medical plan does not cover the costs out of the island). The same day I came back to my hometown I went straight to a physiatrist, she then had me do some tests, one of them was a vain doppler which came back negative but said I may have had cellulitis. From this, the physiatrist referred me to an internist doctor.

I was checked by over six doctors were all referred me to do laboratories and different tests (artery doppler, mri starting from the hip down to my foot, ect.) all of the tests came back negative. It was not until a laboratory technician from a cardiovascular doctor saw me for second time doing another test and decided to talk over my case with the doctor from the office. He then called me and notified me that the doctor thought that what I could have is the May Thurner Syndrome, since it fit the framework (age and a left swollen foot) and recommended me to have an ascending venogram done.

At first they tried doing it but ended referring me to do a pelvic venogram since they could not find a “good” vein on my foot for its swollenness. Later, I had the pelvic venogram done and effectively, the results came back positive. During all this time I never had any pain just a HUGE discomfort of my leg being so swollen and the skin stretching. I have been able to walk (I still go around my college campus to get to my classes) but I limit myself to go just to the important places since the more I walk the more swollen it gets.

After months of desperation and not knowing what could it be, I finally had a diagnosis. Thankfully, I didn’t have any thrombosis or at least not yet. However, I was told that I would need to get a mesh implant and for it to work I would also have to take blood thinners. Tomorrow, I will be meeting up with a doctor to talk over the details of the process. I wanted to share my experience since it’s somewhat different from the ones I have read so far but also to let my case known for if anyone else may have gone or is going through something similar.