Fear of blood clots?

[ArykaLinn]

So I'm 21, fairly active. I work in a bar so on Wed-Sat I'm constantly running around...in heels! lol. But from Sun-Tues I'm hardly active at all. I have a lot of aches in my calves (probably due to heels, lol) and for the past few days I have been having a pain in my chest when I breathe in deep. It started on the right, now progressively moved to the left. Which of course, scared the s*** out of me!! I had a fear that I had a blood clot for the longest time, then it went away. But from this chest pain, of course I'm worried I have a blood clot in my lungs.

Does anyone else worry about this? Does anyone know statistics on blood clots? I'd look them up myself but I'd run into symptoms and I don't want to read anymore of those, while I could probably resite them by heart, I don't want to re-open all of that useless knowladge/giving me more to worry about. For anyone who's researched it, I'm 21, female, smoker, not overweight (I might be considered a bit under weight or just on the line), no family history of blood clots.

Sounds nuts, right? lol

[Topcat]

I seriously dont think you need to worry, go to the doctor and get checked to make yourself feel better about it.

I do have a family history of blood clots and my dad was born with one in his brain (which he didnt know about) which killed him when he was 51, I used to worry myself sick that I had the same thing as him and sometimes I do wonder when I get a headache if it is a clot so I dont think it sounds nuts at all.

[Fudge]

You're not nuts, but I'd suggest maybe distracting your brain by looking at the more logical things before letting your brain worry about the very serious issues. Then, as Topcat suggested, make an appointment to your doctor if it continues.

As for things it could be.. You said you're a smoker, right? It could be that the chest pain is caused from too much smoking. I know from talking with friends that smoke, that they sometimes complain that it can be difficult to breath in very deeply, especially after being active. As you get a bit older, these effects get a bit more compound.

[ArykaLinn]

Oh last night put the icing on the cake. I had to take my mom to the ER, she has really bad back problems, anyway, while the doctors were fixin her up my right foot started going numb. I ignored it and thought it was just how I was sitting. When it wouldn't go away I took my shoe off to massage it, try and get some feeling back in it. That's when I noticed that my foot was swollen, dark red and my toenail beds were purple. I took my other shoe off and my left foot was completely fine.

So of course I freaked, thinking I had a blood clot. I decided to talk to a nurse to see if she thought I should get a doctor to look at it. She took one look at it and was like "Uh yeah, you need to go to the front and admit yourself." Awesome. So of course I'm shaking/hearts pounding out of my chest.

Needless to say the Doc doesn't think it's a blood clot, he also doesn't think it's circulation. He thinks I strained my foot at work (I wear heels every night). I started to put 2 and 2 together, I usually have Dr Scholls foot inserts in my heels, but my right one fell out, so I've only been using the left. Saturday night I couldn't wear my heels at work b/c the bottom of my right foot hurt so bad, even in flats it'd off and on hurt for a minute, I'd have to walk on the side of my foot, then it went away.

And as soon as I elevated my foot, it went back to regular size, turned back to it's regular color and was okay again. I have yet to have the symptoms as bad as last night, but I've kept my foot elevated for the most part all day.

I mean I'm 21, not over weight, I smoke a pack of cigs a day since I was about 15 or so, I don't really drink, my eating habits are horrible, but still I'm pretty young!

But there's still something deep down that is saying it's more than that. It is probably just my anxiety and the fact that this ER doctor is the very same who told me I had asthma (which after a second opinion, it was obvious I don't, no wheezing/excessive coughing) so I'm not sure how competent this doctor really is. I just can't imagine this is a sprain/strain, it doesn't hurt!! Has anyone ever heard of this before???