Greetings, Doctors.
First of all, I understand that I must not take opinion from people on the internet regarding to health issues as absolute truths, much more when these people are not familiar with the specifics of the individual case. However, this is the place where I trust I could find evidence based answers applied to my sport, and from people with medical background, so I it seems worth the asking as a first barrier.
My wife, 26 y.o., not overweight, had DVT in the hip and one leg, 4 years ago. She spent some weeks at the hospital, and some months on medicines after she went home. Today, she takes no more medicines, except for an injection in case of long aircraft travels, and uses a compression sock in the affected leg routinely (not 24/7). She does not have aesthetic sequels, and imaging shows that some veins in the affected areas have reduced width (this condition is stable for some years), but circulation is OK. In one of the exams, it says something like “possible reflux to Valsava” (translation by myself) - which scared me a bit. She obviously also removed the known risk factors from her routine (COCPs).
In functional terms, she also does not seem to have sequels (at least for a layman like me), except for reduced strength on the affected leg - which I think is more related to lack of training. She was a really active person until the illness, but has been quite sedentary these past years. Now that we are living together, I convinced her to start training with me, and I tried to assemble a beginner’s protocol for her, based on barbell/dumbbell exercises, with machine accessories here and there (as one would expect from my biases), which she is enjoying.
So, here comes my question: do you see, from this picture I poorly draw, any immediate measures I should take as a more experienced partner in training? My main concerns are the use of the compression sock during training (mandatory? desirable?), use of belt (not recommended? I read something in this regard in Greg Nuckols article about belts, given it’s’effect in blood pressure). Do you see any other special concerns for such a trainee, or any kind of measures/exams to identify possible issues? Thank you!