About two weeks ago my husband started complaining about a pain in his left thigh. He was convinced that it was a muscle tear, and initially we did not pay too much attention to it. The strange thing was that he did not remember having played sports to render such a tear.

With each passing day, the pain in his leg became increasingly intense. A red spot appeared on his thigh that became warmer, darker and more painful as time passed. After a couple of weeks he could hardly walk and we decided to visit the family doctor.

At the clinic the diagnosis was swift: suspicion of DVT. We were told to go to the emergency room immediately. Even before the final diagnosis, we were shocked to find out that something that seemed so apparently trivial could lead to deadly consequences. . After all, my husband is 39 years old, and I thought he was too young to have thrombosis or any disease of this kind, because he has always been healthy and thin.

We spent the entire night in the emergency department, doing analysis, drinking coffee, x-rays, more coffee and ultrasound.

In the end it seemed like God decided to grant my husband a second chance and the final diagnosis was SVT (Superficial Vein Thrombosis) instead of DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis). Lucky him!

The difference between DVT and SVT syndrome is that the latter one is less dangerous due the fact that the blood clot does not form in the main artery but in a minor one. The danger with DVT is that the blood clot is located in the main vein and sometimes moves through the system until it reaches and attaches to the lungs, impairing lung function. The consequence of that is a complication called pulmonary embolism which can be fatal.

The therapy for SVT compared to the one for DVT is minor. It means that instead of three months of daily Heparin injections into his stomach, the therapy requires only one month and instead of weekly checkups as a followup, a once every six months will be required.

On our way home from the hospital we tried to figure out WHY he got SVT and wondered if we had changed something in our normal lifestyle.

After doing some research, we agreed that:

• He was sitting at his desk for a huge amount of time during the past 3 months due to pressures at the work place.
• He wasn’t drinking enough.
• He wasn’t eating properly, enjoying too many carbs in in his diet
• He wasn’t wearing compression stockings, which help, especially those who have a family history of heart failure (his dad).

These were our conclusions, but these are just some of the causes for DVT.

The sad part is that we discovered that 1 out of every 10 people worldwide suffer from DVT.

If you recognize yourself in my husband’s lifestyle, don’t delay any longer. You can prevent the DVT today!