The doctors also have no idea what caused my DVT or pulmonary embolism. They took me off of Eliquis for a month and I started to develop a clot in my left leg so I am on Eliquis forever. I do wear compression sleeves when flying but rarely when riding
Good luck in your Northeast tour, hopefully you are coming through NY state, lots of great places to rid

Thanks for your reply. My DVT and pulmonary embolisms came on in December 2017, well before Covid-19. The doctors had no idea why they occurred.
I was put on Xarelto and it worked great. I stopped taking it after my clots had been gone for about a month.

As you probably know, blood thinners have some rather unpleasant side effects. For one, Xarelto is essentially irreversible (except for an expensive and hard-to-find counter medication). I decided that the risk of falling and getting internal bleeding was not worth it and switched to aspirin with my hematologist's blessing.

He advised me to stay hydrated. He said if I get any symptoms at all to head to an ER to get checked out. When I did, the ER doctors told me to wear a compression stocking. I wear a compression sleeve because of nerve problems in my foot. So if you see the area where your DVT was puff up, put a stocking on and get it checked out.

Also, if your are flying, wear compression socks (or sleeves) and get up and walk a bit during the flight.

Best of luck on your trip. I am headed out on a loop tour of the northeast US in about a month.

John,
I stumbled across your blog and wanted to relate a similar experience I had. In February of 2020 my wife and I went to Breckenridge on a ski vacation which meant flying from our home outside of Rochester to Chicago then Denver. Skied great all week. I was 61 at the time and was a long distance runner. After returning a few days later I could barely walk up one flight of stairs. Since this was the beginning of Covid and all I got was some telemedicine visits it took them a month to diagnose me. When I woke up one morning a month into having a hard time breathing I found my left calf enlarged, hot to the touch and I could not walk. Off the hospital and after ultrasound and CT scans they found lots of clots in my left leg and my lungs. My final diagnosis was an unprovoked sub massive pulmonary embolism and DVT in my left leg. I was put on Eliquis and 6 months later my clots are gone. I have done a lot of bike riding since then and plan on leaving in a few days for my cross country trip
My hematologist thinks it might have been caused by me contracting Covid during the ski trip but so much time had passed there was no way to positively determine this. Perhaps Covid was the root cause of your clots as well.

Did you try a warranty claim for your non waterproof pannier?

I read an old 1970s touring article in the days of steel rims where braking was very ordinary even in the dry where the writer said something like the difference between braking in the dry and in the wet was one rotation of the wheels after which you had wiped the rims and were back to square one. I keep this in mind when braking in the wet today on aluminium rims.

The field of pots were there ten years earlier: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/littledebbie/day-51-wenona-il-to-kewanee-il/#6619_IMG_2881

Wow. That is scary.

I'm glad you recovered, and I look forward to reading this journal as another winter storm moves through my part of Kentucky in the next few days.

What an experience John!
Good to hear that your tour could go ahead!

Mike