Question:
What are the symptoms of a Blood Clot

How do I know what to look/feel for? (particularly in my legs). I know what to do to (supposedly) prevent clots, but apparently, some people develop them regardless. What should I look for?    — Toni B. (posted on March 26, 2000)

March 26, 2000
Hi Toni, You will have excrutiating pain in your leg when you dorsiflex it. Meaning, when you pull your foot up toward you, it will hurt behind your knee and in that area of your leg. That is called a "positive Homan's" sign. Also, your leg may be warm to the touch, swollen or have a feeling of heaviness. You can develop a fever w/ chills too but this doesn't indicate the severity of the clot either. Under no circumstance should you attempt to massage your leg, it may dislodge the thrombus, the clot, turning it into an embolism, a traveling clot. Get immediate attention if you feel you have any signs or symptoms of a DVT, deep vein thrombosis. Hope this helps, Toni...Good Luck, Marni
   — Marni

March 26, 2000
My symptoms were simply severe throbbing and pain in my left leg along with noticeable swelling. It seemed to get worse over 6-8 hours time and at the point where I felt sure it wasn't normal pain for such a long while I called the doctor. He was not available right away so his service referred me to the on-call surgeon at my hospital. I didn't suspect what might be the problem as I'd had so much joint and knee pain prior to surgery that I lived with a fairly routine amount of leg and foot discomfort as I'm sure many of us do. I described my pain to the resident who advised me(after several more calls to check with his supervisor -and several more hours) to come into the emergency room. Once in emergency, I apparently failed to impress the admitting staff of the seriousness of my situation and was put at the bottom of the priority list of a busy, night time, urban hospital(University of Pennsylvania Hospital), ER population. There were many, including some violent crime victims, ahead of me and I didn't make my case sound urgent enough to compete for prompt attention.....I learned long after the incident that my increasing shortness of breath would have sent the staff into gear and possibly prevented the embolisms which followed but I didn't know the right words to say, I felt lousy, and I tend to be a silent sufferer anyway. NOW HERE"S THE IMPORTANT PART: YOU SHOULD SCREAM AND YELL, MAKE A SCENE, AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS...TELL THEM YOU ARE HAVING TROUBLE BREATHING! They did pull me through it but I could easily have died and I certainly suffered much unnecessary additional trauma due to the long wait for treatment of my blood clots. Good Luck.
   — Carol M.

July 5, 2001
I had lots of leg pain, shortness of breath and was excruciatingly tired. Unfortunately, never having had surgery before, I didn't know that this was abnormal. I ended up with a pulminary embolsim that covered 85% of my right lung and 10% of my left. I was rushed by ambulance to the nearest hospital. Thank God I had a great pulminoligst. I ended up in ICU for eight days, had a filter permanently implanted in my body, I was on 100% oxygen, bled internally, ended up having blood transfusions, numerous IV's spiked fevers of 103 and was not expected to live. I was only 34 at the time! Thank God and my pulminoligist that I made it through. DO NOT, I REPEAT...DO NOT take any signs of blood clots lightly, call your dr. immediately and go to the emergency room - it could save your life!!!
   — khansen