Has anybody any experience of deep vein thrombosis in the young?

My 22 yr old son has developed a hugely swollen, mis-coloured leg and numb foot, after a visit to an NHS drop in centre he was told to go straight to A and E.
They did blood tests and began treatment for DVT, he's off to the hospital tomorrow for MRI, Ultrasound and more blood tests.

I'm a bit worried as he's only young and wondered if anybody had a similar experience

I had one, that moved to the lung from the leg (never even felt it in the leg), when I was 27. Turned out I have Factor V Leiden defect so make sure your son is tested for that. Makes me roughly 8 times more likely to clot than normal people. My parents only got tested recently and it turned out I had inherited it from my dad (so luckily only one dose of the gene and not double -double would have made me 40 times more likely to clot I'm told) despite him never having a clot in his entire life, and he's in his 70's. I'm still fighting to get my kids tested, the hospital keeps putting it off -originally they said they would test from about age 13, then they said 16, my oldest is now 17 and has still not been tested and it is vital that she is as if she has it it will impact on a lot of things like plane journeys, other long journeys, medication, surgery etc.

The only thing I know so far is that he has an abnormally high reading of a certain type of protein in his blood.

How does it affect you now and do you have to have constant treatment?

My boy is on daily injections of Clexane and has been told he'll need these for 6 months.

Normally, it doesn't affect me at all. When I was pregnant I had to have injections every day, and I also need them for any long haul lights like to the USA -longer flights than that like to Australia for instance I don't think I could do as it would be too risky.  If we drive for several hours we need to stop now and then to make sure I can stretch my legs. I can't have surgery unless it's la case of life or death as it increases the risk of clots and having to go on blood thinners for surgery is of course dangerous. I can't be on the pill or have any hormone related treatment, but other than that, I do everything as normal and after the 6 months on blood thinners (I was on Warfarin) after the clot I have not needed anything again apart from during and following pregnancies.
Here's a link with some info: http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/diseases/facts/factorv.htm

My daughter (26) developed a DVT in May this year - she was on Clexane for 5 days and is on warfarin until November - hers was a groin clot. It's taken a while to get the dosage of warfarin correct - Her doctor was useless and her INR was always too low so she went back to the DVT clinic at our hospital and back on Clexane - and after a few 'words' from the clinic to her doctor she was advised to change doctors - well thankfully her care has now been excellent - she visits the hospital every fortnight. They've done genetic tests and believe it was caused by taking the pill after the birth of her baby. She was on the pill for 5 months. Her leg is still a bit swollen and discoloured. It's been a very worrying time for her - she was bedridden for almost 4 weeks. Hope your son soon recovers :)

Thanks for the link MarianneB it made interesting reading and put things into perspective, at least it's nice to know it's not all doom nd gloom.

Couple of queries though
What is INR that Sandra762 mentioned and is it likely that this high protein reading that my boy has is this Factor V Leiden that you have.?

INR stands for 'international normalised ratio' and is used to standardise results for prothrombin time and prothrombin ratio.  The prothrombin time is the time it takes plasma to clot after addition of tissue factor and I think it is affected by levels of factor VII in the blood, rather than factor V.  Prothrombin ratio (and I had to google this as I couldn't remember) is the prothrombin time divided by the result for the control plasma.
There is a need to standardise these results (INR) as the products used are of biological origin and as such can vary between batches.
A normal INR should be in the range 0.8-1.2.
I hope this makes sense!

Flippin heck :)

Well it sort of makes sense.

I'm going to read again :) :) :)

It's been along day, by the way can I borrow you to go with my lad to the hospital tomorrow :)

Basically it is a test for checking clotting but it has to be standardised hence INR. 
I work in a hospital and ask too many quesitons that's why I know a load of useless gobbledegook :)

> I work in a hospital and ask too many quesitons that's why I know a load of useless gobbledegook :-)

Still wish I could borrow you :)

My old dad was a bio-chemist and he'd be able to give me all sorts of info, sadly the sill old thing passed away recently :(

My friend is 25 and a hair dresser. Shes got a DVT in her leg and is awaitin an op. :-o