Hi and welcome. I totally understand jumping to the cancer conclusion. My hematologist said in most cases where clots are caused by cancer, you'd likely be symptomatic of the cancer before getting a DVT. Now he could have been saying that to ease my concerns, but it made sense. If you're concerned about cancer, have you talked to your doc about possibly doing an abdominal CT scan. Some people have had them to rule out malignancy.

Do they have any opinions of what may have caused your clots? Do you have any risk factors. I will say this too. Many people here have clotted for no known or found cause.

Hi and welcome! You might also consider stopping by the PE group. There tends to be more on that group on dealing with anxiety and fear after an event like this.

I'll tell you that I'm three years out from my PEs and I still occasionally freak myself out in the middle of the night thinking about the link between clots and cancer. Cancer runs heavy in my family and I'm cautious with the screenings, but it can still be really hard to convince "panic-brain" at 2am that everything is really OK.

And for you, you've seen the damage the clots have done and you've seen first-hand the trauma of cancer. (So sorry about your day, btw.) And I'd honestly be a little shocked if your WEREN'T freaking out a little bit by every ache and pain. That's pretty standard and for you it is just heightened by your experiences/memories of your dad.

I mean, I've had three clotting events and we've never found a cause for them. No family history, no cancer, no clotting disorders. You may not know why you clotted, or maybe they do have some idea? I've seen very, very few people on these boards who are also dealing with cancer... maybe 2-3 in the last three years?

Anyway, yeah, there can be some heavy fear and anxiety that show up after any clotting event. I was fine mentally after my two DVTs (one in 2005 and one in 2009) so I was totally unprepared for the emotional wallop that came with the PEs. In some ways, working through the mental trauma of the whole thing was a lot harder than the physical recovery.

If you start to feel like it is taking over your life, think about getting some help with it (meds, therapy, journaling, meditation, etc.). No shame in that. Your energy is better spent on healing than worrying, for sure...

Wow, in your situation having a kind if freak-out is not only understandable, I think it would be almost impossible to avoid! Not that I'm saying in any way that I think you have cancer, it's just that our minds automatically jump to those places when we've been so close to someone who went through that.

As rmb said, a lot of us here have clotted even multiple times just because apparently our blood likes to clot, we don't have cancer. I have read a statistic before about blood clots related to undiagnosed cancer, unfortunately I can't remember it at all, I just remember it still wasn't a very common thing, but you could probably do an online search and see how frequently or infrequently it happens. Do you have any other obvious risk factors? If you do, that's a lot more likely your cause. And as she mentioned too, in the absence of another obvious reason, I'd think it makes perfect sense to talk to your doctor about your concerns and see if you should get any additional testing. You could also see a hematologist, which it seems like are usually dual specialties hematology and oncology, so I'd think if anything needed to be found, they'd find it.

I'm sorry for what you're going through both physically and emotionally. I'm sure things will be fine for you, though, and I hope that is soon!

thanks for the responses. I will stop by the PE board. The doctor thinks my clots were caused by sitting too much/long. I have a sedentary job (writing) and have bad knees/walk with a cane. So over the past year, I've done little walking while at work, sit for 3-4 hours at a time. Will work on doing better on that.