Surgeon General: Watch that calf pain, it may be a blood clot

Back in December, I wrote a post on pains that you should never ignore. One of those is pain in the calf of your leg that doesn’t seem to have a direct cause. This could be a sign of a blood clot in the leg or a deep vein thrombosis (DVT). The danger of these clots is that they can break away from the vein and travel in your blood stream to the lungs. This results in a dangerous, sometimes fatal, condition called a pulmonary embolism.

The surgeon general of the United States has kicked off a campaign to help people recognize the signs and symptoms of a DVT. Acting Surgeon General Dr. Steven Galson says that it’s a silent killer – one that’s hard to diagnose.

What are the risk factors for developing a DVT? The most common ones are recently having surgery or a trauma, such as an accident. Others include taking birth control pills, especially if you smoke, pregnancy, being over the age of 65 years, being overweight, smoking, and staying still (like on bedrest or in a wheelchair) for long periods of time.

To get more information about the call to action, you can read the Surgeon General’s press release here.

~~~~

Tags: chronic pain blog, pain blog, blood clots, DVT, deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, risk factor for blood clots, risk factor for DVT, surgeon general, dr steven galson