A woman who recovered from a blood clot has shared five ‘classic’ symptoms she noticed before her diagnosis following the news that had been rushed to hospital.
The cleaning guru – real name Sophie Hinchliffe – earned her 4.8million followers by sharing cleaning tips online. Taking to the platform, she had more .
“Anyway to cut a long story short, I had a blood clot in my groin / pelvis / leg area,” she said in an update. “I haven’t had one since 2018 and then another one decides to hit me three weeks postpartum. What a 12 months it’s been.”
Alyson Layser, host of the Her Everyday podcast, also suffered a blood clot while studying abroad in Spain, but in her lungs. She took to to share the warning signs she noticed before she received her diagnosis.
“I had pretty much all of the classic signs of a blood clot,” she said. “But I didn’t know what they were, so I had no idea that I was actually clotting.”
While the symptoms of a blood clot may vary depending on where the clot is located, there are some signs that are more common than others, such as leg pain. Here are the symptoms Layser noticed.
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Leg pain
Layser said the first sign she noticed was a “really terrible” pain in her leg – something she initially chalked up to dehydration caused by hot weather and lengthy walks in Valencia, where she was living at the time. “I remember waking up in the middle of the night with just this terrible pain and spasming in my calf,” she said.
“I thought it was, you know, weird, but I thought, you know, I’ve been dehydrated, I’ve been walking a lot, like, this is probably why.”
Shortness of breath
Layser said she “started to notice this when I was walking from my host family’s house to my school.” She added: “Over time, I just got progressively more and more short of breath as I was walking to school.
“I thought that maybe I was just, like, gaining some weight, getting out of shape, like, I didn’t know.”
Coughing
“Also, the entire time I was studying abroad in Spain, I was coughing,” Layser added. She said she had “colds here and there” but said her “immune system was definitely out of whack” as a result of her travelling.
Layser’s coughing got so bad that she said she fractured a rib, something she only discovered had happened upon her return to the US. She would even wake up in the night with a cough.
Heart palpitations
Layser said her shortness of breath became worse upon her return to the US. Her heart rate also increased and she started suffering heart palpitations.
Tiredness
“I was also so, so tired,” Layser continued. She added she had gone on holiday to Mexico with her mum and was taking regular naps, despite normally being full of energy on trips abroad.
Blood clots in a vein, also known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT), are most common in the legs. The NHS states: “DVT (deep vein thrombosis) is a blood clot in a vein, usually in the leg. DVT can be dangerous. Get medical help as soon as possible if you think you have DVT.”
The health service states that the symptoms of DVT are: “throbbing pain in one leg (rarely both legs), usually in the calf or thigh, when walking or standing up; swelling in one leg (rarely both legs); warm skin around the painful area; red or darkened skin around the painful area – this may be harder to see on brown or black skin; and swollen veins that are hard or sore when you touch them.”
Symptoms can vary depending on where the blood clot is located. If you are concerned, seek medical help urgently.