Physical Recovery

This is never normal. 1 in 10 patients will cough up blood. If you are coughing up blood it could be due to high pressure around the lung and can worsen on an anticoagulant. Blood clots usually don’t leave a scar in the lung, and pain is usually associated with pulmonary infarction.

Most of the time there will be no damage. The two places you could have lasting issues are in your leg and in your lung.  Damage in the leg would be from both the blood clot and the destruction of the valves that move blood along and cause swelling in the leg.  Most of the time this is just an inconvenience, but if you get significant swelling it may prevent you from doing a job where you must stand up repeatedly.  You may need to wear compression stockings to squeeze the blood back to the upper part of the body. As far as the lungs are concerned, 96% of the time there will be no serious damage, but 3 to 4% of patients develop post thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension where you might have some continued shortness of breath that requires a specialist to repair the damage done to the vessels in the lungs.

• After PE: Shortness of breath and mild pain or pressure in the lungs are common. You are likely to notice pain when you exert yourself, during physical activity, or whenever you take a deep breath. Shortness of breath gets better over time, and exercise helps you use your breath more efficiently. These symptoms should resolve in several weeks.
• After DVT: Post-Thrombotic Syndrome (PTS); persistent swelling, pain, and discoloration of the skin in the affected arm or leg. These symptoms may persist to some degree and are long term in one third to half of cases. Wearing knee high compression stockings for the first 3 months may reduce this risk.

It takes around 3 months to complete active treatment of VTE, although recovery time varies per individual, so there is no standard for how long it will take to recover. Download NBCA's New Patient Guide to learn more about the blood clot recovery timeline.