Blood clots?

Hi SteveyN 

I'm sorry to hear about your suspected blood clot and that you are going through treatment. I have a different cancer to you and have not had blood clots but by responding to your post it will place it back at the top where it will be seen by more members. Have you got any paperwork or booklets from your chemo team as it is likely that the symptoms to watch out for will be explained in there. I hope you get some answers from your ultrasound today. Best wishes for your treatment.

A x

Hi Steve. I can't recall anybody here complaining of that but I will do a search for you. I have a friend who has a Cancer of Unknown Primary and she has a clotting problem. It is a function of her cancer rather than of her treatment as far as I'm aware

I have found some posts that seem to suggest Chemotherapy may be responsible so the best thing to do is to clear this up with your team. There is an Ask a Nurse. section where you could post. There might be an answer there. Just click on the link I've made in red

Hi Steve I had chemotherapy cisplation I had no issues with my bloods can’t recall anyone who has , neither was I told about that possibility But am sure the ultrasound will sort you out. 
pop back in when you’ve  a minute to let us know 

Hugs Hazel x

Thanks, everyone!

Apologies for the delay in responding. I have just finished week 3 and I am feeling very drained. 

A quick update on my suspected blood clot... I mentioned it to my oncology consultant (after the D-DIMER result but before the ultrasound). She was a bit dismissive and said, "Of course you have a high D-DIMER level, you have cancer", which wasn't very helpful or empathetic, I felt (!).

She looked at my arm and said, "Yes, there is some Phlebitis (superficial thrombophlebitis), but it probably isn't in the deep veins!". I asked whether it would change anything about my next chemo treatment (in a couple of days) and she said that there aren't any contraindications in relation to blood clots.

Then on Thursday, I had a Doppler ultrasound done and they found a deep vein blood clot (a DVT) in my upper arm. So, not where the swelling was in my forearm, but higher up. I have to keep taking blood thinners for the foreseeable future and possibly forever. 

I found this from Macmillan: https://www.macmillan.org.uk/cancer-information-and-support/impacts-of-cancer/blood-clots-and-cancer

It is something that we all need to be aware of.

I haven't had any previous incidents of this and so I have to think that it was caused either by cancer or my treatment. 

One thing's for sure... my chemo canula is going into my other arm!

Best wishes

Steve

Hi Steve I had a PICC line which seemed to get blocked up after a couple of uses, so they gave my arm an ultrasound scan, and discovered that I had clots in my arm. I had to have blood thinning injections, which I had to do every day. I don't think it's uncommon.  

Sorry to hear that, old biker.

It doesn't seem as though many on here have experienced clots. but my consultant did say that I was the 2nd person that day in her clinic. 

It's over 5 years ago now, the blood thinners got rid of the clots, so I was able to stop the injections.