Pulmonary Embolism Support Group

By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.

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Quick Question

arat38
arat38

I gad a PE about 4 years ago due to pregnancy. Pre-PE I had anxiety and have managed to control it but lately because of other circumstances anxiety has popped up and of course my mind goes directly to blood clot. So last night I was in bed and woke up to a pain in my leg which immediately went away once i straightened it. Now I’m paranoid even though I don’t feel any pain now.


How would you tell the difference between a charley horse or just a pain in your leg or a DVT? I had a PE during pregnancy and they scanned my legs but didn’t find anything so I don’t really know what a DVT feels like. 


Advice?



mattrenshaw
mattrenshaw
I can tell you what my doctor told me about muscle strain versus a dvt. He stated a muscle strain will get better as a dvt pain will stay for more than a day. Still kind of vague for me but that's the advice he gave.
ShilosMommy
ShilosMommy
If you have a charlie horse, you'll typically be able to touch the area and feel that it is cramped, the muscle will feel knotted or tight, and if you rub it it will usually start to feel better. None of that happens with a DVT. For me now, I don't actually think they feel all that similar, but I've had several DVTs now, though not once did I ever mistakes Charlie horse for one or vice versa.

This might be very individual, but my personal experience with DVT has always been that if I sat and elevated my leg, the pain would substantially subside and sometimes even go completely away....until I stood up again and it all came whooshing back on me. I've personally never had a cramp feel that way, but I don't know that everyone experiences that type of sensation with a DVT, though.

Maybe try to take some good precautions against cramping, though, like being sure to stretch really well before exercising. To me, that would be the ideal situation - just avoid having both things, if at all possible.