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.
For those of you who clotted, went on anti coag, came off then clotted again, I have a couple of questions. First, how long was it after you stopped the anti coag that you re-clotted? Second, were there any tell tale signs that you knew it was happening again?
I have recently stopped Coumadin after 1 year from my first episode which was a "massive" straddle embolism stemming from an untreated DVT in my popliteal vein in my right leg, which extended from just below the knee to mid way up my thigh.
I from time to time will have a slight pain in my left calf and not quite surwe what to make of it. I go back on the 18th to the hema for a follow up and she is going to run a d-dimer, cbc, cnc, etc as a follow up to see if there is clotting activity .
I have recently stopped Coumadin after 1 year from my first episode which was a "massive" straddle embolism stemming from an untreated DVT in my popliteal vein in my right leg, which extended from just below the knee to mid way up my thigh.
I from time to time will have a slight pain in my left calf and not quite surwe what to make of it. I go back on the 18th to the hema for a follow up and she is going to run a d-dimer, cbc, cnc, etc as a follow up to see if there is clotting activity .
I will note that after my first DVT, I had aches and pains in my "clot leg" for up to about two years. I really didn't consider myself completely healed until about two years out. Personally, I'd consider a "slight pain" like you describe to be part of the healing process, especially if it isn't getting worse and it seems to come and go, with many symptom-free days in between. Also, if you increased your activities after coming off coumadin, that could be causing some of the pain tweaks you're reporting.
For full disclosure, I should say that my PEs occured about four months after coming off the warfarin after my second DVT. I had no leg symptoms at all, just severe SOB and a feeling that something was terribly wrong that sent me to the doctor.
IMHO, unless you have some symptom that is brand new or is suddenly getting worse, I don't know that I'd worry too much about reclotting. It's good to get checked out, of course, and it sounds like you're doing that. Otherwise, listen to your gut... It sounds cliched, but if you can separate the anxiety out, your gut feeling will often give you the clearest feeling for when to go to the doctor.
Congrats on coming off the coumadin!