Hello!

I had a DVT when I was 18 from taking birth control pills. I was later told by my doctor that I have something called factor five, which basically means I should avoid taking birth control pills if I want to avoid blood clots, I guess.

I did have to go to the hospital - I actually went to the emergency room and was admitted that way, because there was so much pain. And I had to stay in the hospital for ten days - five in ICU, and five in a normal room. But don't let that scare you! Because I was apparently a weird one in a million case - most people don't even have to stay in the hospital now, I think. My blood clot was just apparently monstrously huge.

I started on a medication called Heparin through an IV, and I went home taking Warfarin orally. I took it for six months, and haven't had to take it since, and have had no blood clots since (I'm 22 now).

The medications are kind of a pain in the butt. I don't remember much about Heparin, since I was in the hospital. But I hated both because you have to get blood drawn all the time to make sure your blood is at the right level or whatever. I had to get it drawn once a week for most of that time, and then maybe twice a week for the last month. And then my doctor would call and tell me to take more or less pills, depending on what the results said, and I was supposed to avoid food that was high in vitamin K, except I never really tried to very hard and it didn't seem to really matter.

I don't know what a Doppler Scan is, because I had MRIs. But I hope your test goes well! And I hope this information was helpful. If there's something else I might be able to give you my personal take on, feel free to reply back or send me a message.