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.
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.
For most people, walking or taking care of some housework are fine right after you find out you have DVT. It's also OK right after a pulmonary embolism. Your doctor may prescribe a blood thinner -- they may call it an anticoagulant -- and compression stockings. Those help blood flow in your legs.
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.
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.
A blood clot in leg veins is an emergency because it can lead to life-threatening complications. The most dangerous of these problems is pulmonary embolism (PE). PE happens when the blood clot partially or totally breaks away and travels through the bloodstream to the lungs.
However, reported survival after venous thromboembolism varies widely, with "short-term" survival ranging from 95% to 97% for deep vein thrombosis8,9 and from 77% to 94% for pulmonary embolism,4,6,8,9 while "long-term" survival ranges from 61% to 75% for both deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism.
Elevate your legs when you sit or lie down, as often as you can. This will help decrease swelling and pain.
Thrombolytics. Thrombolytics are drugs that dissolve blood clots. A doctor may give a thrombolytic intravenously, or they may use a catheter in the vein, which will allow them to deliver the drug directly to the site of the clot.
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.
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.
Does walking help prevent blood clots? In healthy people, regular physical activity such as walking can help to ensure good circulation and prevent DVT. However, certain people are at increased risk of deep vein thrombosis, such as people admitted to the hospital.
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. Be mindful of this when you're on long flights or driving for a long time.
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.
Recovery from DVT
After you leave hospital, you will be encouraged to: walk regularly. keep your affected leg raised when you're sitting. delay any flights or long journeys until at least 2 weeks after you start anticoagulant medicine.
Typically, your body will naturally dissolve the blood clot after the injury has healed. Sometimes, however, clots form on the inside of vessels without an obvious injury or do not dissolve naturally. These situations can be dangerous and require accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Even a surface clot, which is a very minor issue, can take weeks to go away. If you have a DVT or pulmonary embolism, you typically get more and more relief as the clot gets smaller. The pain and swelling from a DVT usually start to get better within days of treatment.
The doctor will make a cut in the area above your blood clot. He or she will open the blood vessel and take out the clot. In some cases, a balloon attached to a thin tube (catheter) will be used in the blood vessel to remove any part of the clot that remains. A stent may be put in the blood vessel to help keep it open.
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.
Warm skin. The skin around painful areas or in the arm or leg with the DVT may feel warmer than other skin. Trouble breathing. If this happens, it could mean that the clot has moved from your arm or leg to your lungs.
To help reduce the pain and swelling that can occur with DVT, patients are often told to elevate their legs, use a heating pad, take walks and wear compression stockings.
Most patients with DVT or PE recover completely within several weeks to months without significant complications or long-term adverse effects. However, long-term problems can occur, with symptoms ranging from very mild to more severe.
If a clot in an artery breaks free and travels through the circulatory system, it can cause blockages affecting the heart, lungs, and other organs—potentially shutting them down. The results can be deadly. Thrombosis affects up to 900,000 people in the United States per year and kills up to 100,000.
When should you call the doctor about a blood clot? If you think you have a blood clot, you go to the nearest emergency room or call 911. Call 911 right away if you have chest pain, trouble breathing or problems seeing or speaking that come on suddenly.