Iowa's Hamlin watches, ponders future after blood clots

It's rough for JoAnn Hamlin to sit and watch. But not when she considers the alternative.

“Basketball or life? It's a pretty easy choice,” she said Tuesday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena before the Iowa women faced William & Mary.

Hamlin spent 11 days in the hospital - most of it in the intensive care unit - after being diagnosed with a blood clot in her right leg. She was released last week.

She won't play basketball this season and might not play again.

“I've thought about the possibility of red-shirting if I'm cleared to play again, but I know my coaches have a lot on their plate right now,” she said.

Hamlin is on track to graduate in December.

The clot - “just a random, freaky thing,” she called it - has dissolved. Hamlin is walking without stiffness and soreness. But she'll be on blood-thinning medication for somewhere between 6 months to the rest of her life.

Athletes are taught to play with pain. Hamlin tried.

“At first, we thought it was just a pulled muscle in my groin,” she said.

But her condition worsened. First she couldn't sleep. Then she couldn't walk. X-rays showed nothing.

When her right knee was swollen and her right leg was a different color from her left, she was rushed to the hospital. A couple of small clots moved to her lungs, but by then the medication was beginning to take hold.

Hamlin walked with a noticeable limp last Wednesday when the Hawks played Kansas. Her gait was better Tuesday. If there's any self-pity, it isn't noticeable.

“Like Kelly Krei said to me, at least I've gotten to play,” Hamlin said. “How many people can say that?”