Blood clot fear

[Savvy_Darling]

How would you tell the difference between a blood clot and muscular strain / pain??

My left arm bicep muscle feels sore, and to the part where it bends. I woke up from a nap Thursday evening feeling this. The only thing I did the whole day was go out with my nana and we went shopping. I know I carried my purse on that arm and a shopping basket . And then later at another store I put clothes to try on over my forearm and had my arm held up. I just don't understand why it's sore feeling. I don't have any other symptoms except for muscular like pain and soreness on my bicep. It feels more sore when I bring my forearm to my bicep like you would do if your were doing arm curls with a weight. My hand doesn't feel tingly or cold and my left arm looks the same as the other and no redness or anything I can see. Just soreness. Oddly enough when I woke up with this I had read something about a woman dying from a blood clot stroke after she fell at a modeling shoot. Well now all I can think about is a blood clot in my arm. Everyone is already rolling their eyes when I say I'm scared about a blood clot so I haven't been to the doctor. So this started Thursday night and I still am feeling this soreness. :( I mean obviously no one here can know for sure but I'm scared and I don't know what to think to calm down. I keep trying to tell myself it's probably muscular but I'm stuck on this blood clot fear. Ugh.:weep: and yes I looked up symptoms to a blood clot and the muscular pain soreness is what is scaring and fueling my fear more. I'm not sure if my arm is weak because I can still carry stuff but my bicep will start to feel sore while doing it.
Also, I'm not on any medications or birth control. I'm 21, but I know these things can happen to anyone. Haven't had any recent surgery or falls or anything broken. I just woke up like this. My arm also feels better when I put my hand over my bicep. It makes me not feel the soreness or pain. As well as having my arm bent seems to make it feel less sore .. Which I guess would be imitating how I was holding things that day. Trying to rationalize but that what if it's serious this time or I'm right about something this time keeps happening.

[nirvanainchains]

It is completely normal my dear. Anxiety/Stress causes muscular or nerve pains, I am actually suffering a muscular pain in my legs, and it’s really difficult to walk properly, and also constant lower back pain. My way of dealing with this pain is to "not Google" and massage it myself. Relax and have a positive outlook. Anxiety is really a serious problem but it’s not the end. Hope you’re okay.

[Ditapage]

I read about the model too and it set me off worrying about strokes. Sounds like reading that has contributed to your anxiety and made you worry more. I have always muscular tension in my shoulders, arms, neck, scalp. If you had a serious issue you wouldn't get relief from putting your hand over it or changing position. Definitely sounds muscular. It should go away soon enough.

Getting back to the playboy model: there's no autopsy yet. She could have been a smoker, a drinker, used drugs, birth control, high blood pressure, family history, had an autoimmune disease or any other health issues from all the artificial stuff she had implanted and injected into herself, apart from having a fall and injuring her neck. She could have already had the clot or a high risk of developing one. If her fall was really bad she wasn't very wise not to seek medical help. She had the neck pain warning for a few days and in that time she saw a chiropractor twice and asked for advice on Twitter. As her family said, the stroke could've been prevented. It's not 100% known what caused her death. The assumption is the neck injury and that would just be bad luck because neck injuries happen to lots of people who don't die. But point is we don't know all the details. Not everything reported in the media is accurate. That said, it's very sad.

You don't have any risk factors for a stroke from what you've said. When we read what happened to somebody else we forget that these things are rare and reading it doesn't increase the risk of it happening to you. I've had to remind myself that constantly because something on Daily Mail will give me extreme anxiety. You're right that anything can happen to anyone but what's worse is when people put their lives on hold for years worrying about something that hasn't happened. I freak out about what ifs all the time but there's no guarantee that lightning won't strike a tree in my backyard while I'm asleep and burn down my house either!

Stories about clots and strokes completely trigger me but then I read stories of horrific murders and think well there's worse ways to die and there's a chance of that happening as well. Things like fatal strokes and heart attack are quick deaths. But in the meantime we can't worry about everything :) youre a healthy 21 year old. A lot of your peers are heavy smokers and drinkers. You just have anxiety.

[Sparkling_Fairy]

Not everything reported in the media is accurate. That said, it's very sad.


And things reported in the media are there because they're rare. If this was a common thing, the media wouldn't have time to report on every single one.
No point worrying about the rare stuff, we've got enough to worry about already :D

[Savvy_Darling]

Thank you for your replies!

@ Ditapage, you're very right about everything! Your very rational reply has helped me rationalize some of my crazy thoughts.

My arm still feels sore - but I feel like it's decreasing. My shoulder feels more sore now. And I think shoulder pain can radiate down to your elbow. ? Which is where my aching is felt. Of course worrying about it doesn't help either. When I wake up first thing I feel no pain or aches. Weird. I hope it goes away soon.. It's also responds well to pain relief creams.

Oh and @ sparkling_fairy.. I never thought of it that way. You're so right but us anxiety suffers think we are magnets to rare things. :wacko: