Apparently both my grandfather and his oldest daughter had/have phlebitis, but I'm not in a position to ask them these questions, so please bear with me. :)

I know he was on blood thinners for most of his life, and I want to say he had a vein removed from his leg. From what I have read, some of the symptoms are painful hardening or swelling of the leg (or sometimes the arm), where the vein is that is affected.

Does this feel like a muscle cramp? I mean, if the vein is deeper inside the leg, how would you describe the feeling, much less know there was swelling? For those who were diagnosed, what symptoms did you have, and how long did you suffer before you were diagnosed?

I've read that there is a red spot? Or that you can visibly see something on the outside of the leg. Is this always the case? Especially in dvt? Also, is excessive bleeding a tip-off that something is wrong?

Thank you for your help.

Hello there. I have a DVT due to birth control. From my experience, the clot started as a very painful cramping in my calf, but it was a different kind of pain than I've ever had before. It was deep, and woke me up in the middle of the night. It came out of nowhere, and was not taken away by any pain reliever. I didn't take the pain as anything but a cramp, but that was the beginning of the clot. A week and a half later, I woke up and got in the shower, and when I went to bend my leg and it felt tight and quite weak. Throughout the day, it got much worse and it began to get purple and red all through my leg. It swelled up twice the size of the normal leg, and I couldn't really bend it. There was no "spot" like you called it with my leg, because my clot was from below my knee up into my pelvis, but I don't know for people who's clots are smaller. Also, the excessive bleeding, I have no experience with, so I can't answer that.

I ended up going to the ER at 11pm because the pain was so intense and I couldn't move, and my toes were blue. They diagnosed my blood clot with an ultrasound, and a CT scan. I would say if you're noticing something with yourself and are concerned that you're getting a clot or have one, please, please go to the doctor and get this checked out. I'm 3 months in with my DVT and am still on bedrest most of the time. Though mine was one of the severe cases, just please take precautions if you are worried about having one. I wish you the best of luck, and I hope this answer some of your questions.

OMG I'm so sorry that happened. It sounds horrible. :( Do you feel any better? I'm assuming you're on blood thinners now? HUGS.

datgrlstef - Thank you very much for your well wishes. I am doing better every day, but it's something that is going to take months to get through. My doctor says there's no real timeline to give me on when I'll be back to "normal" but I'm hoping that things will turn around sooner than later.

I am on blood thinners, yes. I take Warfarin (generic form of Coumadin) every single day, right now it's 6mg a day. I get my blood checked every other week right now, and sometimes every week when my levels aren't where they should be.

I hope I didn't scare you with my story,I just wanted to let you know what I went through. I hope you never have to deal with any of this..it's definitely NO fun! :) Take care and big hugs to you as well.