Blood clots

[Missialeri]

For the past week I've been experiencing pain in my calf and behind the knee, due to some research I convinced myself it was a blood clot. I noticed a bit of a cramp in my calf a couple weeks ago which went away. Though the pain has started again last Sunday and continued through the week. Though the pain does go to my knee, shin, I feel it in other areas such as my arms too. I saw a doctor and they examined my leg and assured me it wouldn't be a blood clot but I didn't believe them. My lungs started feeling heavy, coughing a lot, chest tightness and I then went to think a blood clot had gone to my lungs. I just needed to go to a&e to get it checked. They did a chest xray to see if there was anything causing the cough (keeping in my mind I do have mild asthma and possibly hay fever) the xray came back okay, they measured around my calves which was also normal sized, no swelling. They did a few blood tests, they wanted to do a cannula but I was afraid of the big needle so they did a different test for blood clots with a normal needle, also a full blood count along with an eeg blood test?. They also did an EKG to check my heart, blood pressure everything was normal. Though the pain is still present and I'm scared of dying because they may of missed something. I don't know if I should go back again, I don't want to take any risks.

[Brumchick]

Hi , i have had 3 blood clots , 2 in my left leg above thigh and obe on my brain.The doctors will have checked your blood for a marker that indicates a clot is present.If you don't have that marker you dont have a clot.Also with a clot there

[Brumchick in reply to Brumchick]

Sorry my ipad slipped.If there is a clot there is very considerable swelling discoloration depp red and blue and pinprick haemorhagges under the skin of the whole leg or arm.I think you can be sure that it is not a clot.

Good

[Missialeri in reply to Brumchick]

Thank you, I think my anxiety just makes me paranoid. I need to stop searching the internet most definitely. How was your blood clot diagnosed?

[Brumchick in reply to Missialeri]

I had a very swollen leg and i knew i had one as i was a nurse before i got ill. Then they tested my blood and i had a lot of the markers for a blood clot . Iwas diagnosed in a&e.

[Jeff1943]

Missialeri, you've been seen by a large number of healthcare professionals and had every test imaginable but you think all these professionals have missed something and all the tests are wrong. Seems extremely unlikely to me, you can be absolutely certain that whatever is causing your pains it's CERTAINLY NOT a blood clot and you are CERTAINLY NOT going to die.

The pain may be caused purely by anxiety, the fact that you posted your message on an ANXIETY forum seems to indicate that deep down you suspect it is. You mention cramp which is muscular and could easily be caused by anxiety.

After all those tests and examination by all those professionals and nothing organic found then by a process of elimination I think the chief suspect is anxiety. And your over reaction to the pain, convincing yourself of the worst scenario and even fearing death, are also typical symptoms of anxiety disorder.

As the saying goes: if it looks like a duck and it quacks like a duck then it's probably a duck. Or in your case anxiety. So what should you do? You must stop frightening yourself half to death by worrying about these muscular cramps. You must stop obsessing over the pains a.nd do the very opposite- you should accept them. Genuinely accept them, after all you're as sure as you ever can beits nothing life threatening. So I say again, just accept the cramp like pain for the time being and because you're accepting it rather than stressing over it you stop feeding your over sensitised nervous system with more fear and you give your nerves a chance to recover.

When your nervous system recovers it stops playing tricks on you and you recover from all your exaggerated fears and the cramp pains will mysteriously cease to be noticeable. In fact, you'll suddenly realise that you haven't felt that pain for some days/weeks now. But they key to recovering is to Accept the pain without fearing it, that's to say utterly accepting it. It's not easy and it's no five-minute fix but it's the method that brings results every time.

[Missialeri in reply to Jeff1943]

I think your most definitely right there, every little symptom and I've been diagnosing myself with terrible things. I'm starting to accept things how they are now, I'm going to be fine