[Crew]

HeY! all of YA'LL

I have a question and I will be googleing it after here but I'm afraid about the doctor telling me I may have DVT! Which I know is a blood clot that hasn't broken off. Tomorrow I go for a "Dobbler" which is basically a ultrasound with wires. The hooked up to wires scares me. I know I have had one before and I also know that my mind usually "blanks" horrible tests. Then say they find a DVT then I have to go into the hospital!
Maybe some ppl here may know of DVT or their may be ppl that has had to have the surgery. Were afraid though.
ThaCrew

[lenjan]

I've had 3 DVTs and a PE (blood clot in the lung instead of a deep vein in the arms or legs).

Times have changed since my first one in the early 1990s. You don't necessarily have to go into the hospital anymore. You probably will have to give yourself (or have someone give you) shots in the stomach for awhile, though. This is the stuff they tend to start you out on: http://www.lovenox.com/consumer/default.aspx (hope you have good insurance; it's hella expensive -- like, more than $100 per shot ) Once they feel like you're out of the woods, they'll put you on an oral blood thinner http://www.drugs.com/warfarin.html for a minimum of 6 months (if this is your first one).

http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/doppler-ultrasound Doppler ultrasounds don't involve wires. Ultrasounds don't involve wires at all, actually; they involve reflected sound waves. They put some cold gel on the affected part and then take this electric shaver-looking thingy and move it around. It brings up pictures on a computer screen and they can see from that if you have a clot and where it is.

Easier said than done, I know well -- but try not to freak till you know for sure what's up. Hang in there.

Candy

[equive]

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.

[lenjan]

Heparin is given intravenously in a hospital setting. The shots you can take at home now are a low-molecular-weight heparin:

low-molecular-weight heparin is as effective as standard heparin or warfarin and does not require monitoring of the activated partial thromboplastin time or the International Normalized Ratio. Traditionally, treatment for DVT required patients to be hospitalized for administration of intravenous heparin. With subcutaneous injections of low-molecular-weight heparin, treatment of DVT can be initiated or completed in the outpatient setting with no increased risk of recurrent thromboembolism or bleeding complications. Low-molecular-weight heparin is an attractive option for use in patients with a first episode of DVT, no risk factors for bleeding and the ability to administer injections with or without the help of a visiting nurse or family member.

http://www.aafp.org/afp/990315ap/1607.html

Factor V Leiden is a type of inherited clotting disorder. There are a number of blood factors that affect clotting. I have a genetic mutation of Factor 2 that predisposes me to overclotting.

Birth control pills are a known cause of initial clots in young women (also was what my first one was attributed to, at age 27). You won't be able to take estrogen for menopause, either, since that's what caused the problem in the first place.

You will have to get a very simple blood test (sometimes now just an instantaneous finger prick, like a diabetic testing their glucose level with a meter) to check how low or high the level of anticoagulant in your system is. If it's low, you run the risk of clotting; if it's high, you run the risk of nasty things like internal bleeds (but it has to be REALLY high, so don't get scared. ) Vitamin K does in fact affect the level, but you don't have to avoid it completely -- which is a good thing, as the foods highest in Vitamin K are the ones that are "good for you," such as dark leafy greens (fresh spinach, kale, red leaf lettuce, broccoli, peas, etc). You just have to be consistent with your intake, i.e., don't eat a huge salad 5 days of one week and then none at all for the next 2 weeks.

Most important: If they didn't send you for an ultrasound right away, and actually sent you home to come back another day? It probably isn't a blood clot. They wouldn't have let you out of their sight if they had more indications that it was one.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Candy

[coupe-chic]

my mum has had DVT a few times in her leg, she was put on tablets called warfrin they thin the blood out, eventually she had to get a few vains taken out of her leg, and she RARELY suffers from it now