An unexpected clot can lead to serious problems and even death. In an artery, it can give you a heart attack or a stroke. If it happens in a vein, you can feel pain and swelling.
“But about 30–40% of cases go unnoticed, since they don't have typical symptoms.” In fact, some people don't realize they have a deep vein clot until it causes a more serious condition.
An In-Depth Look At Blood Clots
We can't see or feel these veins, meaning a clot could be “silent” with no symptoms, or it could cause dull, heavy pressure, pain, and swelling. Clots in superficial veins, outside of the muscle tissue, can cause a lump or cord tender to the touch.
If the clot is small, it might not cause any symptoms. If it's medium-sized, it can cause chest pain and breathing difficulties. A large clot can cause the lungs to collapse, resulting in heart failure, which can be fatal. About one in 10 people with an untreated DVT develops a severe pulmonary embolism.
throbbing or cramping pain, swelling, redness and warmth in a leg or arm. sudden breathlessness, sharp chest pain (may be worse when you breathe in) and a cough or coughing up blood.
Signs that you may have a blood clot
Symptoms include: leg pain or discomfort that may feel like a pulled muscle, tightness, cramping or soreness. swelling in the affected leg. redness or discoloration of the sore spot.
Important! If you think you have a blood clot, call your doctor or go to the emergency room right away! Blood clots can be dangerous. Blood clots that form in the veins in your legs, arms, and groin can break loose and move to other parts of your body, including your lungs.
Small blood clots in the calf can sometimes go undetected for several days or weeks, especially if they don't show any symptoms. If left untreated, however, DVT can travel up the veins in the leg to the lungs or other major organs in the body, leading to a potentially fatal pulmonary embolism or similar complication.
Clotting is a necessary process that can prevent you from losing too much blood in certain instances, such as when you're injured or cut. Blood clots usually dissolve on their own.
Recognizing the Signs of a Blood Clot
Abdomen: stomach discomfort, nausea or vomiting. Arm or leg: pain, swelling, tenderness and warmth that may occur gradually or suddenly.
Medical conditions that have symptoms similar to DVT blood clots include: Peripheral artery disease. Varicose veins and spider veins. Cellulitis.
Duplex ultrasonography is an imaging test that uses sound waves to look at the flow of blood in the veins. It can detect blockages or blood clots in the deep veins. It is the standard imaging test to diagnose DVT. A D-dimer blood test measures a substance in the blood that is released when a clot breaks up.
The risk of a blood clot breaking off and traveling around the body is highest within the first 4 weeks after it initially forms. However, healthcare professionals are unsure of exactly how long it takes for a blood clot to travel around the body.
throbbing pain in 1 leg (rarely both legs), usually in the calf or thigh, when walking or standing up. swelling in 1 leg (rarely both legs) warm skin around the painful area. red or darkened skin around the painful area – this may be harder to see on brown or black skin.
Does blood clot pain come and go? Unlike the pain from a charley horse that usually goes away after stretching or with rest, the pain from a blood clot does not go away and usually gets worse with time.
It's also worth mentioning that the most common symptom after a blood clot is exhaustion and fatigue. So, be kind to yourself and rest when you need to. For the first couple of months, you might not feel like yourself; you might feel like resting is all you can do, and that's okay because that's part of this disease.
Exercising With DVT
Overly strenuous exercise while suffering from DVT can cause complications and negatively affect your health. Exercising with DVT should start light, and build up slowly over time. A common exercise regimen involves going for walks every day and gradually adding more time to each walk.
Given that the blood clot can travel throughout the body to major organs such as lungs, brain, heart among many others, it is important to head over to an ER as soon as you present with symptoms of the same.
If the clot is in an artery, emergency treatment is often required. Sometimes a catheter-based procedure to break up or remove the clot is necessary. Other times, clot-busting drugs (thrombolytics) can be used.
If you are diagnosed with a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in one of your deep veins, you may assume that you need to be treated in the hospital. But that's not always the case. In fact, research even shows that in some cases, treatment at home may be more successful than in-hospital treatment.
The mechanism of hemostasis can divide into four stages. 1) Constriction of the blood vessel. 2) Formation of a temporary “platelet plug." 3) Activation of the coagulation cascade. 4) Formation of “fibrin plug” or the final clot.
Blood clots most often start in the legs and travel up through the right side of the heart and into the lungs. This is called deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The skin around the area will become warm and sensitive to touch. The skin may have a reddened appearance as the body works to get rid of the clot. If blood flow is restricted, people often feel pain when they move the affected area, Anyone suffering these symptoms should call 9-1-1 and seek immediate treatment.