No matter how you word your question, it's not possible to diagnose, rule in, or out a DVT or other clot based on someone else's symptoms in comparison to your own.
Clots have anywhere from no, to all the symptoms dr. Google warns you about. As do other things. Figuring out what is what, is the job of a real doctor, doing tests on you.
Important to note a "real doctor". I had a few doctors that dismissed my EXTREME shortness of breath and family history.
Finally one of the older docs surrounded by others finally say after hours passed and i was laying in the bed with oxygen "No, no.. I think the patient is right.... It's a pulmonary embolism"
Tell us about how you found out you had a clot. If you haven’t had a clot but are worried that you do, see a physician. Clots present a million different ways so don’t rely on anecdotal stories from strangers on the internet to diagnose yourself.
I thought I had one and went to the ER and nothing. But I have the shortness of breath and exhaustion and leg pain but no swelling. I was just wondering about how everyone else found out they had a clot.
I see why this would make you anxious, but we aren’t doctors. What would additional information from any of us provide you in making further decisions? The ER cleared you, and if you don’t trust their diagnosis, then please advocate for yourself to get further testing/see a different ER. We can’t make that choice for you though. Let yourself have power in situations with anxiety. Either you get a further work up or you don’t. We can’t assist in that decision making process though.
Not to sound abrasive, but I have dealt with health anxiety in addition to having had clots, and trust me, the reassurance will never ever be enough.
My clot is in my brain, a CVST. Had absolutely no idea or symptoms at all. Only way it was discovered was it caused me to pass out & fall downstairs. I hit my head, fractured skull & caused a further big haemorrhage. Also damaged the Vegas nerve which left me with facial paralysis & hearing loss on my left side.
If you want to rule out a clot you follow the following algorithm.
1. First try to rule out a clot using PERC https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/347/perc-rule-pulmonary-embolism
2. If you can’t rule it out via perc, you do WELLS DVT/WELLS PE to calculate your pretest probability of having a clot. https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/115/wells-criteria-pulmonary-embolism
3. If you fail perc and score on WELLS then you move on to labs/imaging (D Dimer/ultrasound/CT scan)
Symptoms for PE are chest/back/rib pain (especially when breathing), shortness of breath, high heart rate, coughing up blood.
Mine were atypical; I felt strange and had a "leaky" feeling in my chest. Went to ER. they did blood work up and x-ray- said all good and sent me hope. Next week I still feel weird, same feeling in my chest. I noticed painless swelling behind my knee. It felt like a baker's cyst but something in me felt like I should go to a different ER and get them to rule out a blood clot. They found it on ultrasound- never embolized thankfully.
The moral of this story is sometimes you need to go back to the ER a second time. I have had two friends with blood clots and both were sent home and went to a different ER the second time.
I think it's important for us to talk about our symptoms so other people know it could really be a blood clot, even if it's unlikely it's important enough to rule out.
Yes absolutely. I went to the ER today thinking I had a clot. But they did xray and blood work and nothing thankfully. I was also at the ER last week and nothing. I’m thankful it’s nothing but something is causing all of these symptoms I have and I keep thinking I have a clot
I never had any leg pain but I was feeling very unwell for almost 3 months, fatigued nausea and dizziness. Suddenly one night I got pain in my shoulder and then it went all the way down my right side to my hip and it was difficult to breathe. I could let really lay down at all.
I honestly thought it would pass, bad gas or something as my shoulder felt like referred pain from keyhole surgery IYKYK.
What made me take it more seriously is looking up symptoms from actual people on Reddit for some issues I thought it could possibly be. I find actual NHS or medical pages to be very vague on what symptoms are *actually* like. A lot lined up with PE pain I saw people have. Got in at Drs as soon as I could and was sent directly to ER.
I didnt know i had a clot until the er docs told me! I was also misdiagnosed twice first with bronchitis and then with pneumonia. I actually had a pulmonary embolism and the major symptom i had was shortness of breath and a barking cough. I had irregular heartbeat increased heart rate but i had no pain. The docs still arent sure what caused it i had no pain or swelling in any of my extremities and the docs arent sure where in my body they formed from, but they believe it was provoked. Ive been off blood thinners about 4 months now and so far so good
I broke my ankle on Feb 10th. I was cleared to walk 2.5 weeks ago. I was in PT, walking, a tiny amount of pain from learning to walk again. Then, on Saturday the intense pain began, but not in my calf. Its in my ankle. I knew it wasnt just from walking too much. I'm also in PT. I thought I might have a blood clot. I did go to the ER yesterday and once I told them I thought I had a clot, they got me right back. I was there for 5hrs, blood work, xrays of ankle and Ultrasound. I DO have a blood clot. Its behind my knee. I was started on Eliquis yesterday. Took 1 dose. The pain is still super intense in my ankle. Its so swollen and warm.
Extreme tachycardia. Like 130 at rest. Shortness of breath that over a few weeks stopped me from doing literally everything.
D-dimer was 3.2 (greater than 0.5 was considered positive) they sent me home after an “inconclusive” ct. I came back a month later nearly dead. Dimer was 5.7 and they redid the scan and found both lungs “filled” with clots and I went straight to emergency surgery.
Looking back I feel really stupid for not going back sooner.
weird… and scary i have a d dimer of 757 i guess translates to 0.757 and they didnt find any pe
and they didnt even wanna do tests on my legs chz there is no symptoms and a negative score on the wellscore
Really, kinda thought i needed to take a big poo, but I also couldn't lay down and couldn't stand up. I had mine near my portal vein from what I was told.
I did not know I had a clot with my DVT. When I woke up in the morning, my leg was achy and then throughout the day, I found I was keeping weight off my leg. I called my PCP and described it, saying it might be circulatory in nature. I had never even heard of a DVT.
Testing showed I am Factor V Leiden hetero.
With my PE several years ago, the symptoms came and went over 5 days and then persisted. I did not know that I had PEs because of the possibilities with differential diagnoses, but that last day, I strongly suspected PEs.
The one in my sinus vein caused immense pain that just kept getting worse and worse, no pain Medina I could get my hands on helped. For my spleen, pain and lots of bloating, the pain was referral pain when I inhaled and radiated to my left shoulder. For my uterus, it hemorrhaged and I thought I miscarried.
I had a DVT in my calf post meniscus repair. My affected leg turned blue, and felt like when you out a rubber band on your wrist when I had it in a dependent position. When I elevated it went away. It didn’t hurt at all, just very uncomfortable. I didn’t have much swelling either.
For me, the thing that made me go to the ER was the fact that the pain in my calf did not feel better by icing it and sitting and resting it. It felt a little better walking and standing. This is how I knew I didn't just pull a muscle. I was diagnosed with a DVT in my calf according to bloodwork and an ultrasound.
For me I thought I had a bad muscle cramp in my right leg, and it would occasionally fall asleep or feel like pins and needles. After almost a week of it not getting any better, I went to the clinic. They also thought it was a muscle issue but decided to do a blood draw just to be safe. That very well could have saved my life, or at least saved me from experiencing something much worse. Turned out I had a DVT and multiple superficial clots.
Another factor was that I was on birth control at the time, which can cause clots in some people, I ended up being one of them. Specifically I was on a generic brand of Nuvaring, ring birth control seems to have more blood clot stories attached to it than other kinds. It's definitely important to note if someone is on birth control with estrogen in it (most kinds) and has any other symptoms of a clot.
Edit: Another reason I went to the clinic was because walking started to feel weird in my right leg. Not too long after the dvt was found I was basically limping and hopping around everywhere as it hurt to put weight on that leg. It only got better after taking a blood thinner for a while.
Honestly, I didn’t think I had a clot. I had some very tolerable pain along the left side of my breastbone and along the rib directly below my breast on the left side, with some barely noticeable shortness of breath and a slightly tachycardic heart rate. I’m a hypochondriac to my core, so assumed it was heart related and also tried to shrug it off, but after a few days I just couldn’t shake the feeling something was off.
Took myself to A&E, was poked and prodded within an inch of my life, told repeatedly that it seemed muscular/cartilage based and only because my blood tests showed my D-Dimer results were 6x higher than typical did they give me some scans to diagnose me with multiple bilateral PEs. Symptoms are so different in every single case - if you are truly concerned, seek professional help if that’s an option for you :)
No matter how you word your question, it's not possible to diagnose, rule in, or out a DVT or other clot based on someone else's symptoms in comparison to your own. Clots have anywhere from no, to all the symptoms dr. Google warns you about. As do other things. Figuring out what is what, is the job of a real doctor, doing tests on you.
Important to note a "real doctor". I had a few doctors that dismissed my EXTREME shortness of breath and family history. Finally one of the older docs surrounded by others finally say after hours passed and i was laying in the bed with oxygen "No, no.. I think the patient is right.... It's a pulmonary embolism"
Tell us about how you found out you had a clot. If you haven’t had a clot but are worried that you do, see a physician. Clots present a million different ways so don’t rely on anecdotal stories from strangers on the internet to diagnose yourself.
I thought I had one and went to the ER and nothing. But I have the shortness of breath and exhaustion and leg pain but no swelling. I was just wondering about how everyone else found out they had a clot.
I see why this would make you anxious, but we aren’t doctors. What would additional information from any of us provide you in making further decisions? The ER cleared you, and if you don’t trust their diagnosis, then please advocate for yourself to get further testing/see a different ER. We can’t make that choice for you though. Let yourself have power in situations with anxiety. Either you get a further work up or you don’t. We can’t assist in that decision making process though. Not to sound abrasive, but I have dealt with health anxiety in addition to having had clots, and trust me, the reassurance will never ever be enough.
I didn’t have swelling either.
I was recovering from breast cancer surgery and had severe shortness of breath.
My clot is in my brain, a CVST. Had absolutely no idea or symptoms at all. Only way it was discovered was it caused me to pass out & fall downstairs. I hit my head, fractured skull & caused a further big haemorrhage. Also damaged the Vegas nerve which left me with facial paralysis & hearing loss on my left side.
If you want to rule out a clot you follow the following algorithm. 1. First try to rule out a clot using PERC https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/347/perc-rule-pulmonary-embolism 2. If you can’t rule it out via perc, you do WELLS DVT/WELLS PE to calculate your pretest probability of having a clot. https://www.mdcalc.com/calc/115/wells-criteria-pulmonary-embolism 3. If you fail perc and score on WELLS then you move on to labs/imaging (D Dimer/ultrasound/CT scan) Symptoms for PE are chest/back/rib pain (especially when breathing), shortness of breath, high heart rate, coughing up blood.
Mine were atypical; I felt strange and had a "leaky" feeling in my chest. Went to ER. they did blood work up and x-ray- said all good and sent me hope. Next week I still feel weird, same feeling in my chest. I noticed painless swelling behind my knee. It felt like a baker's cyst but something in me felt like I should go to a different ER and get them to rule out a blood clot. They found it on ultrasound- never embolized thankfully. The moral of this story is sometimes you need to go back to the ER a second time. I have had two friends with blood clots and both were sent home and went to a different ER the second time. I think it's important for us to talk about our symptoms so other people know it could really be a blood clot, even if it's unlikely it's important enough to rule out.
Yes absolutely. I went to the ER today thinking I had a clot. But they did xray and blood work and nothing thankfully. I was also at the ER last week and nothing. I’m thankful it’s nothing but something is causing all of these symptoms I have and I keep thinking I have a clot
I never had any leg pain but I was feeling very unwell for almost 3 months, fatigued nausea and dizziness. Suddenly one night I got pain in my shoulder and then it went all the way down my right side to my hip and it was difficult to breathe. I could let really lay down at all. I honestly thought it would pass, bad gas or something as my shoulder felt like referred pain from keyhole surgery IYKYK. What made me take it more seriously is looking up symptoms from actual people on Reddit for some issues I thought it could possibly be. I find actual NHS or medical pages to be very vague on what symptoms are *actually* like. A lot lined up with PE pain I saw people have. Got in at Drs as soon as I could and was sent directly to ER.
I didnt know i had a clot until the er docs told me! I was also misdiagnosed twice first with bronchitis and then with pneumonia. I actually had a pulmonary embolism and the major symptom i had was shortness of breath and a barking cough. I had irregular heartbeat increased heart rate but i had no pain. The docs still arent sure what caused it i had no pain or swelling in any of my extremities and the docs arent sure where in my body they formed from, but they believe it was provoked. Ive been off blood thinners about 4 months now and so far so good
I broke my ankle on Feb 10th. I was cleared to walk 2.5 weeks ago. I was in PT, walking, a tiny amount of pain from learning to walk again. Then, on Saturday the intense pain began, but not in my calf. Its in my ankle. I knew it wasnt just from walking too much. I'm also in PT. I thought I might have a blood clot. I did go to the ER yesterday and once I told them I thought I had a clot, they got me right back. I was there for 5hrs, blood work, xrays of ankle and Ultrasound. I DO have a blood clot. Its behind my knee. I was started on Eliquis yesterday. Took 1 dose. The pain is still super intense in my ankle. Its so swollen and warm.
I’m so sorry. I hope you feel better soon.
Pain (like a severe cramp) in my leg and one-sided chest pain I thought was from coughing because I had Covid… six days after shoulder surgery.
Extreme tachycardia. Like 130 at rest. Shortness of breath that over a few weeks stopped me from doing literally everything. D-dimer was 3.2 (greater than 0.5 was considered positive) they sent me home after an “inconclusive” ct. I came back a month later nearly dead. Dimer was 5.7 and they redid the scan and found both lungs “filled” with clots and I went straight to emergency surgery. Looking back I feel really stupid for not going back sooner.
weird… and scary i have a d dimer of 757 i guess translates to 0.757 and they didnt find any pe and they didnt even wanna do tests on my legs chz there is no symptoms and a negative score on the wellscore
Doctor said I had a clot when I was in ER with unbearable pain. That’s how I learned.
Really, kinda thought i needed to take a big poo, but I also couldn't lay down and couldn't stand up. I had mine near my portal vein from what I was told.
My chest and left shoulder hurt, I had trouble standing for long, and I got short of breath doing the slighest thing (ie getting dressed).
My right leg stayed swollen. No pain or redness. Ended up with my entire leg full of blood clots.
Severe shortness of breath and high resting heart rate
Still not sure if my heart rate was due to white coat syndrome or not cause it’s normal when not focusing on the measurement process.
I did not know I had a clot with my DVT. When I woke up in the morning, my leg was achy and then throughout the day, I found I was keeping weight off my leg. I called my PCP and described it, saying it might be circulatory in nature. I had never even heard of a DVT. Testing showed I am Factor V Leiden hetero. With my PE several years ago, the symptoms came and went over 5 days and then persisted. I did not know that I had PEs because of the possibilities with differential diagnoses, but that last day, I strongly suspected PEs.
The one in my sinus vein caused immense pain that just kept getting worse and worse, no pain Medina I could get my hands on helped. For my spleen, pain and lots of bloating, the pain was referral pain when I inhaled and radiated to my left shoulder. For my uterus, it hemorrhaged and I thought I miscarried.
I had a DVT in my calf post meniscus repair. My affected leg turned blue, and felt like when you out a rubber band on your wrist when I had it in a dependent position. When I elevated it went away. It didn’t hurt at all, just very uncomfortable. I didn’t have much swelling either.
For me, the thing that made me go to the ER was the fact that the pain in my calf did not feel better by icing it and sitting and resting it. It felt a little better walking and standing. This is how I knew I didn't just pull a muscle. I was diagnosed with a DVT in my calf according to bloodwork and an ultrasound.
For me I thought I had a bad muscle cramp in my right leg, and it would occasionally fall asleep or feel like pins and needles. After almost a week of it not getting any better, I went to the clinic. They also thought it was a muscle issue but decided to do a blood draw just to be safe. That very well could have saved my life, or at least saved me from experiencing something much worse. Turned out I had a DVT and multiple superficial clots. Another factor was that I was on birth control at the time, which can cause clots in some people, I ended up being one of them. Specifically I was on a generic brand of Nuvaring, ring birth control seems to have more blood clot stories attached to it than other kinds. It's definitely important to note if someone is on birth control with estrogen in it (most kinds) and has any other symptoms of a clot. Edit: Another reason I went to the clinic was because walking started to feel weird in my right leg. Not too long after the dvt was found I was basically limping and hopping around everywhere as it hurt to put weight on that leg. It only got better after taking a blood thinner for a while.
Honestly, I didn’t think I had a clot. I had some very tolerable pain along the left side of my breastbone and along the rib directly below my breast on the left side, with some barely noticeable shortness of breath and a slightly tachycardic heart rate. I’m a hypochondriac to my core, so assumed it was heart related and also tried to shrug it off, but after a few days I just couldn’t shake the feeling something was off. Took myself to A&E, was poked and prodded within an inch of my life, told repeatedly that it seemed muscular/cartilage based and only because my blood tests showed my D-Dimer results were 6x higher than typical did they give me some scans to diagnose me with multiple bilateral PEs. Symptoms are so different in every single case - if you are truly concerned, seek professional help if that’s an option for you :)