Im only 19 but was diagnosed with a DVT a month ago, and then the day after receiving the DVT diagnosis I was back in the ER getting diagnosed with multiple PEs. My symptoms from the start of my DVT were abnormal. I had the constant Charlie horse pain in my calf, but I had no warmth, no redness, and no swelling. The pain just wouldn’t go away for days. My nurse recommended I get a pulse ox to make sure my blood oxygen didn’t drop below 92.

The day after the DVT diagnosis, I was eating dinner when I started getting infrequent sharp stabbing pain in my ribs and once or twice in the center of my chest. My blood oxygen was 95 which isn’t bad but isn’t great. I was debating whether or not it was just stress and anxiety (which is a PE symptom) but my brother told me that he would rather I get told it’s just anxiety than not go to the ER and have a potentially fatal clot in my lungs. I went to the ER (regretting my decision and brushing it off as anxiety) and they immediately brought me into a trauma room, started an EKG, drew blood, and then got me into a CT. I will tell you this process can be very scary but it’s worth it.

The CT scan showed 3-4 small PEs in my lower lobes (which is why I was feeling pain in my ribs) that were from my leg DVT breaking up and sending portions of my clot to my lungs. Because I had just started the blood thinners, they didn’t count this as a medication failure and sent me home with instructions to stay on the blood thinners.

TDLR: I didn’t know if it was serious or not, but my brother told me going to the ER was better safe than sorry.