I am a 50-year-old woman and have had four episodes of deep vein thrombosis. The first one occurred after my third childbirth. Each time the site is my right leg, probably damaged during the first clot. There is no known factor identified, and I have been on warfarin therapy since the third episode. The first three episodes were accompanied by the usual swelling, heat, discoloration of the leg before I was diagnosed with DVT. But this last time, the clot was caught very early, before the vein was blocked completely. I have noticed that I know something is wrong with circulation in my leg way before these more obvious symptoms begin. These include a feeling of tiredness in the leg, especially when beginning exercise, but then feeling better as exercise increases the circulation. The veins in my foot and ankle stand out more. There is a mild but constant internal ache in the leg and an odd “plugged” feeling. Sometimes the vein actually feels irritated to me, and perhaps more full to the touch. My affected leg is always slightly larger, and slightly a different color than the other, due to poorer circulation, but the color begins to change subtly darker, and it also feels colder than the other foot when this problem is beginning. My right foot will often feel tingly when I first stand on it in the morning, in spite of exercising foot and ankle before getting up. I sometimes have a hard time convincing my physician that I can feel when things are happening inside the vein, but with experience, I am clearer and clearer that I can. He sent me for an ultrasound of my leg this time, even though he said he did not suspect a clot. The ultrasound showed a "web" or strings of clot just beginning to form. My hospital time and rehab has been much quicker.

I experienced leg pain and swelling around my left knee which I ignored for several days. I than experienced groin pain and my foot became very cold. And along with the swelling I had tenderness and redness of the leg. this was all in a matter of 1 week. I panicked went straight to ER and was examined by two md's, had a doppler done on the leg, 2 clots were found, one in the groin area and one smaller one behind my knee, I was then immediately hooked up to IV heperin and was told I was not too get out of bed for the fear of the moving. One clot was found in the groin area and because of the large size of it, it had actually blocked a valve in the groin area that resulted in the the blockage of flow of blood thru my leg. they determined that the smaller clot behind my knee had broken from the larger one that was in the groin area. I spent almost 2 weeks laid up in the hospital with an IV blood thinner. I had to be scanned/x rayed from head to toe before I could be released from hospital. This was 5 years ago, I still depend on compression stockings to help with swelling and discomfort of the leg and I also take a low dose of aspirin daily.

My problem started a while back after I had a knee replacement. One day my right leg started hurting and the knee was really warm or hot to the touch. I went and had a doppler done on my leg and they found a large blood clot. I was put in the hospital and given Warfarin and Lovenox shots for three days. My blood did not thin so I was sent to the blood center to be given Lovenox shot. This was 2 months ago and my blood will not thin with the warfarin. I am still talking shots. I went to a blood doctor and they did test but could not find any reason why the blood thinners do not work. Now am going to see another blood doctor 300 miles away from me to see if they can get my blood to thin. My question is this: Is there any others who have the problem I have with thinning my blood.

I'm a 41 yr old female, 4 years ago I had a blood clot in my left leg. There was a little swelling at first then came the pain and discolors of the leg when I went to take a shower. A trip to the ER and an ultrasound on my leg determined I had many clots in my leg. Come to find out- I had a birth defect in my artery we never knew about. Did the blood thinner for 3 mos., which I don't need any more (thank goodness- nasty stuff), I still take 1 reg. aspirin a day and use the compression stocking.

I discovered my DVT when my leg swelled and became painful. I thought I was bit by a spider or something. Went to the emergency room and the doctor ordered an ultrasound of my leg and discovered the DVT. I had been a truck driver for 35 years and the doctor thinks the long hours behind the wheel in the sitting position was the cause. They have been trying to dissolve the clots for twenty months now. My ultrasounds every six months have shown they are slowly dissolving and about eleven months ago they put a Greenfield filter in me to keep any clots that break loose from getting to my heart. So far so good I'm still here today because they caught it soon enough.