Aa
Blood clot????
About five weeks ago I had an IV in my arm on side of wrist. It still hurts to touch and vein feels hard in that spot. No swelling or redness. Have been seen by two ER docs. Both just looked at it and said it's phlebitis. One doc did xray to check for damaged tissue I guess. Now I have family members and friends Freaking me Out! They say it could be a blood clot and travel to lung killing me. As if my worrisome self and anxiety wants to hear that. I'm so scared. Two doctors have looked at and felt vein say it's just "phlebitis". Is it really worse than doc assumes?
thank you! That helped calm my nerves, and searching Internet sites about clots turning into emboli I do not recommend to anyone, freaky, anyway thank you again
Get a good night's sleep this evening and hug your kiittycat. There is no possibility that this "clot" is "going to travel". Well, maybe a possibility as remote as the guys from AIG returning all the cash they scammed...
These problems are generally due to a tearing, or laceration of the vein. When you get an IV there is a hollow beveled sterile metal tube (called a trochar) surrounded by a plastic sheath. The combination are advanced at an angle, and then the plastic sheath is slid forward over the trochar and the trochar removed.
Sometimes these veins are hard to see, and sometimes the nurse or person initiating the IV aren't too skillful. Sometimes there is a co-factor involving blood clotting (the patient may have been taking aspirin). So there is a little leakage of blood, which puddles, and hardens. In most cases these "clots" become absorbed. Sometimes they become infected, but this is not the norm.
Another ocasional problem involves necrosis of the vein, generally from running certain corrosive medications in at an improper rate, and a higher concentration. These problems can be serious and result in loss of the arm, however they do not present in the manner you describe.
So the answer to your question is that your physician has been giving you good advice and a good standard of care.
People are not perfect and these little problems come under the heading of "the nature of the beast".
If, after a month, the problem does not go away, see your physician again. On very rare ocasions a minor procedure may be performed to remove the clotted blood. But most times it simply disappears over time.
These problems are generally due to a tearing, or laceration of the vein. When you get an IV there is a hollow beveled sterile metal tube (called a trochar) surrounded by a plastic sheath. The combination are advanced at an angle, and then the plastic sheath is slid forward over the trochar and the trochar removed.
Sometimes these veins are hard to see, and sometimes the nurse or person initiating the IV aren't too skillful. Sometimes there is a co-factor involving blood clotting (the patient may have been taking aspirin). So there is a little leakage of blood, which puddles, and hardens. In most cases these "clots" become absorbed. Sometimes they become infected, but this is not the norm.
Another ocasional problem involves necrosis of the vein, generally from running certain corrosive medications in at an improper rate, and a higher concentration. These problems can be serious and result in loss of the arm, however they do not present in the manner you describe.
So the answer to your question is that your physician has been giving you good advice and a good standard of care.
People are not perfect and these little problems come under the heading of "the nature of the beast".
If, after a month, the problem does not go away, see your physician again. On very rare ocasions a minor procedure may be performed to remove the clotted blood. But most times it simply disappears over time.
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