I have two questions about superficial thrombophlebitis. I was taking mircette birth control pills to control heavy bleeding during periods. I am 43 years old. I was told to take a double dose by my ob/gyn because the regular dose was not effective in regulating the bleeding (this lasted for about 3 weeks leading to endometrial ablation surgery) after 3 weeks of this dosage, I developed a rather severe and persistent pain in my inside calf. After a day of pain redness appeared directly over the pain (about the size of a quarter, however, within 24 hours the redness increased in size to about the size of a dollar). As soon as the redness appeared I called my primary care physician and was seen that morning. She diagnosed a superificial thrombophlebitis (and explained why she did not believe this to be a bug bite or cellulitis) and also sent me to the hospital for a sonogram of the deep vein in the leg to rule out a deep vein blood clot. That test came back negative. She also said to stop the birth control pills immediately. Because of the impending surgery, she did not prescribe an anti inflammatory. This occurred on a saturday morning.
On monday I called the ob/gyn office to explain this situation and let them know that I was not taking the birth control pills any longer, as I did not know if this would affect the surgury (endometrial ablation). The doctor was not in until the afternoon. That afternoon, the nurse from the ob/gyn office called me back and asked a million questions about how this was diagnosed, treatment, follow up, etc. She replied that the sonogram of the leg was negative. I explained that they only looked at the deep vein, and why. The following thursday, I went in for the surgery (at the hospital) and the ob/gyn saw my leg for the first time since the pain started (8 days prior). She said that I had phlebitis, not a blood clot. I explained that the doctor who saw me the previous week at the primary care diagnosed this as a blood clot. The ob/gyn said that it couldn't be since the sonogram was negative. I explained, again, that the sonogram was only of the deep vein, not the site of the pain and redness, and was done to rule out dvt. I also said that the official diagnosis was superficial thrombophlebitis, not a deep vein blood clot. She said that diagnosis means a swelling of the vein, not a blood clot, and that there is not such thing as a blood clot in the superficial vein. Is that true? Which doctor am I to believe. I feel that an accurate diagnosis is important.