Elevate your legs when you sit or lie down, as often as you can. This will help decrease swelling and pain.
Raise your feet, especially when sleeping
Keeping your feet elevated in the evenings while relaxing and while sleeping can help promote healthy circulation which may decrease the risk of deep vein thrombosis – especially if one you suffer from varicose vein disease.
It is possible for DVT to resolve itself, but there is a risk of recurrence. To help reduce the pain and swelling that can occur with DVT, patients are often told to elevate their leg(s), use a heating pad, take walks and wear compression stockings.
For years, if you had a DVT, your doctor would order bed rest. This was thought to lower the risk of a clot traveling through your bloodstream to your lungs. But recent research suggests that bed rest doesn't help people with DVT and that it may be fine for you to get up and move around.
DON'T stand or sit in one spot for a long time. DON'T wear clothing that restricts blood flow in your legs. DON'T smoke. DON'T participate in contact sports when taking blood thinners because you're at risk of bleeding from trauma.
Living with DVT
It takes about 3 to 6 months for a blood clot to go away. During this time, there are things you can do to relieve symptoms. Elevate your leg to reduce swelling. Talk to your doctor about using compression stockings.
Conclusions: Early walking exercise is safe in patients with acute DVT and may help to reduce acute symptoms. Exercise training does not increase leg symptoms acutely in patients with a previous DVT and may help to prevent or improve the postthrombotic syndrome.
Women who are pregnant or taking birth control, elderly people, and people who smoke are at especially high risk, says Dr. Tonnessen. “Not exercising or moving around on occasion can lead to a more extensive blood clot.”
Taking regular walks to stimulate healthy blood flow and elevating the affected leg above the hip are the easiest and most common remedies. You can also wear compression stockings, which help battle postthrombotic syndrome (PTS), a condition that causes damaged blood vessels to become swollen and painful.
Chest pain or discomfort that gets worse when you breathe deeply or cough. Coughing up blood. Feeling lightheaded or faint. Feeling anxious or sweating.
If your leg is swollen, elevating or icing the leg won't reduce the swelling if it's a blood clot. If icing or putting your feet up makes the swelling go down, you may have a muscle injury. With a blood clot, your leg may also feel warm as the clot worsens.
Sitting or lying down for long periods—due to prolonged bed rest after illness or a long airplane flight, for example—can cause blood to pool in the legs, leading to deep vein thrombosis (DVT) and, worst-case scenario, pulmonary embolism if the clot travels to the lungs.
Your doctor might recommend: Medication: Anticoagulants, also called blood thinners, help prevent blood clots from forming. For life-threatening blood clots, drugs called thrombolytics can dissolve clots that are already formed.
There's no proven way to treat a blood clot at home with natural remedies. If you try to dissolve a blood clot at home, it may take longer for you to get proper medical treatment. This can increase your risk of developing a potentially life threatening condition.
4 to 6 weeks of therapy may be sufficient. Many patients who experience a DVT or PE with no identifiable cause (unprovoked) or strictly as a result of birth control may only be on blood thinners until initial concerns with the clot are resolved or birth control is stopped. This may be a few weeks at most.
The primary treatment for DVT and PE is anticoagulation with blood thinners. These medications increase the time it takes for blood to clot. They prevent new clots from forming and existing clots from growing larger. Anticoagulants do not dissolve a clot.
Don't: Sit Too Long. Try not to stay seated for more than 2 hours at a time -- get up and walk around regularly. If you had a DVT in one of your legs, don't cross your legs when you sit down. That position can affect your circulation.
The better your circulation is, the lower your chance of blood pooling up and clotting. Clotting is often caused by long periods of inactivity, so practicing a regular exercise routine can help you reduce your risk of clots and other conditions related to blood clots, such as diabetes and obesity.
Early walking exercise was safe in patients with a DVT and may have improved acute symptoms. Exercise training did not acutely increase leg symptoms in patients with a previous DVT and may prevent or improve post-thrombotic syndrome.
Apart from swelling, another sign that you should visit an ER for a blood clot is if you develop discomfort as well as pain and tenderness in one or both legs. This should be taken seriously even if the pain only manifests when you stand or walk, as it is usually another telltale sign of DVT.
If you suspect that you have a blood clot or experience any of the signs and symptoms, you should consider going to the ED. Signs of DVT include: Swelling of the legs, ankles, or feet. Discomfort, heaviness, pain, aching, throbbing, itching, or warmth in the legs.