DVT question

[iluvchocolate2]

Hi can anyone help

I have a friend (60ish. I'm worried she may have a DVT. She has an extreme needle and blood phobia.

Is it possible to be tested for a DVT without the use of needles (I've heard of doppler?) Is this 100% effective?

If a DVT is diagnosed what are the treatment options? I've heard of warfarin, is a blood test required for this?

HISTORY. Pain started back of knee. At worst point my friend had to crawl on the floor for a day as couldn't weight bear. No swelling or redness. Went to GP who was very puzzled but didn't test for a DVT.

Friend came away with cream pain killer & physio sheet of exercises. Her pain is gradually going but its still there & the movement is restricted in her leg. This all started 10 weeks ago.

Thanks for any help.

hmmm...

I have had a DVT and it does sound a bit like this. It felt like a badly pulled muscle to start with, but got gradually worse until my whole left leg swelled up.

I was tested with a doppler, which, as far as I know is an effective way to diagnose the problem.

The bad news is that it is treated with warfarin which requires a weekly blood test to get the dosage correct. If it is a DVT then I'm not sure what she can do to avoid needles to be honest.

Is she swollen at all? What has made you think it's a DVT?

Sorry if that doesn't help at all. Someone is bound to know more than me.

I had a dvt in the back of my knee after the birth of ds2 - no pain or swelling or redness but I had got phlebitis on a different bit of my leg (was spending lots of time feeding a very hungry new baby so spending lots of time lying still) so had the doppler scan to check that out as it wasn't going.

the doppler operator was just being thorough and checking all my leg when she spotted it; if I hadn't had the phlebitis I wouldn't have known it was there.

As lifeissweet says, doppler will give a good diagnosis but the problem is afterwards when you have the warfarin and need very regular blood tests. Even worse is the starting period before the warfarin kicks in and you need several days of injections of heparin to sort you out initially - think I needed to go for about 10 days.

did your friend ask her doctor to check and see if it was a dvt or was she hoping that she would mention it if relevant?

Sometimes if you are worried about something specific like that it is good to get them to check for it and if they say no, to ask what to look for in case it is and gets worse, what the consequences are of having an undiagnosed dvt etc.

Sad to say but in this litigious age, by asking people to rule something out categorically, if there is a little inkling that there might be a problem with it on the offchance, you often have more success in getting a referral it seems...