Carol Albright enjoys scrapbooking with her friend, but even simple hobbies became difficult when Albright developed deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in her leg.
"There came a point where one evening I really was having trouble breathing," Albright recalled.
A trip to the emergency room revealed the clot had traveled to Albright's lungs, and it was big.
"I thought,'This is bad,'" Albright explained.
"If it's a big enough clot, it can be fatal, and that's the biggest concern with this disease," said Dr. Victor Tapson, pulmonary critical care specialist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Tapson said symptoms of DVT are often missed. They include pain and swelling in the leg, shortness of breath, coughing, and dizziness,. but sometimes there are no symptoms.
"Most of the time, they're not diagnosed until it's too late," Tapson said.
To fix Albright's clot, Tapson used an ultrasound catheter to infuse low doses of strong clot-busting drugs directly into the clot. Then, he placed a filter in the vein in the abdomen that connects her leg veins with her lungs to catch any future clots that might break off.
"Carol did well. The procedure was easy," Tapson said.
Now, with her clots continuing to shrink, Albright is feeling better.
"My line these days is I'm better, on my way to good," Albright said.
She's happy to be enjoying her hobbies again and knows she's lucky to be alive.
"I just am so grateful to still be here," she said.
For many patients, blood-thinning drugs are the treatment of choice. Doctors use the catheter procedure when clots are extremely large. You are more at risk for DVT if you are immobile, suffer an injury or trauma, have had a recent surgery, or have been kept in cramped quarters.
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