A year ago, I started getting painful lumps inside my fingers occasionally. The lumps would hurt a LOT and then gradually soften and turn into a big bruise. After I suddenly got about 4 at once one day (they come on really suddenly), I stopped at an urgent care clinic and the doctor said they were blood clots and that I should take aspirin, stop taking any hormones, and go see a rheumatologist. I did all those things, but by the time I got to the rheumotologist, there wasn't much to see except a tiny callus over one finger joint where one of the bumps had stayed for several weeks. He told me to see a dermatologist and basically dismissed me. Oh. I also got tested for a rheumatoid factor and tested positive. All he cared about was whether I had rheumatoid arthritis or not and he said I didn't. The bumps kept happening, off and on for the next few months.

Yesterday, my 18 year old son grabbed his hand suddenly and said his finger hurt a lot and the tip of his finger had a tiny purple bump deep inside, just like mine. Sure enough, the next day he had a purple bruise across the first joint of his index finger. I never had this when I was 18. It's hard to believe it's some weird genetic condition. Could there be something in our house that's causing this? What is it? Vitamin deficiency?

The only doctor who believed me was an urgent care doctor who actually saw the lumps. Now I wish I'd dragged my son in yesterday... he didn't want to go the doctor, understandably.

You could have a clotting problem. A hematologist would be a good doctor for you to see, as you may need blood thinners.

Thanks, J-9! My medical group doesn't include a hemotologist. Do you think it's important enough to go outside my medical coverage and just find someone and pay him myself? I've done this before for other things, but feel like my doctors disapprove when I do this. It's never been clear why they object to this. Of course, I usually get more answers this way too...

The first doctor told me that the clots were dangerous. But I guess I've become complacent since I've been living with them for nearly a year.

And also I wonder what's causing them, first in me and now in my son...

I would definitely have this checked out. You may need a referral to an outside physician, your group should not be concerned about referring you for a specialty that they don't carry.

You see, if you are having clotting problems this could cause some very serious problems such as DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) which can be life threatening. There are also some other very serious conditions such as pulmonary embolism, or cerebral embolism that can happen.

You really should find out what this is. It is possible you may need blood thinners if it is the case.

Asking, did you resolve your blood clot problem? It sounds just like the problem I'm having, so I was curious to see if you found out anything...

Thanks.

I am not the only one!! I am 27 and no current health problems. Yesterday I was at work and out of no where my thumb hurt very badly. I had to pinch it as to try to stop the pain. I looked and my vein was huge!! It was at the joint on the inside of my thumb. I was able to go to the clinic and they were very surprised to see this. The doctor had never seen anything like this or heard anything like this before. She figured it was a blood clot although very unusual in a finger or thumb. I have had this happen twice before but in different fingers and again out of nowhere. When I went to the doctor's the first time they passed it off saying I must have pinched or banged my finger. I had not lifted anything or pinched my finger or anything to bring this on. I do however smoke and take birth control pills. These- especially together can cause blood clots. I have been sent to get blood work done and received a prescription. I have also NOT found any information on this except for many others who have experienced the same thing. Before yesterday, it was at least a year ago that it happened last. All that remains is a nasty blue bruise. I was able to see that it definitely was the very small vein or capillary in my finger/thumb that became huge and engorged.

I went to the doctor regarding the problem w/ my finger and the doctor is supposed to have a dermatologist call me to make an appointment. It was 1 week ago today that I saw the doctor and I have not gotten a phone call yet from the derm.

I've had painful lumps in joints of my other fingers in the past, but they only lasted a few days. This time it has been hanging in there for about 3 weeks now. I too did not injure my finger or do anything to cause this. I also am not taking any medications, except that the last few days I've been taking aspirin to try to thin the blood and see if that will help break-up the clot. I have never smoked and I rarely drink alcohol.

I'll have to call the doctor today and see why I haven't gotten a call for the dermatologist yet. I don't think the doctor very concerned about the condition. It is very painful and makes it hard to do some things.

Hi 3Stooge and Lillybee,
It is interesting to me that others have this too. Are you both women? I get the nasty blue bruises too. In fact, I get those on other parts of my body sometimes. I never remember hurting myself.

To answer, I never fully resolved this. I used an estrogen patch for a year with no problem and then my ob gyn said I could not do that and must start taking progesterone in pill form to "oppose" the estrogen. A few weeks after I started the progesterone is when I got the first blood clots, a whole lot of them over several weeks. They were large and really painful. I got several at once one day right after pumping gas and drove straight to the clinic--I was driving by and it was just so weird. The urgent care MD who saw me saw how big they were and said to stop taking the hormones (blaming the estrogen, though that's not consistent with what happened), to take low dose aspirin and see a rheumatologist. The urgent care doctor took it very seriously. He also told me to cancel a rock climbing class I had signed up for.

But I couldn't get an appointment with the rheumatologist for at least 6 weeks. By then the clots had subsided, do to time, the aspirin, and maybe getting off the progesterone. He couldn't see anything and basically didn't believe the urgent care doctor's report--or that's how it seemed. The rhumatologist said my "arthritis factor" was up but that I did not have arthritis and told me to see a dermatologist, which I thought was dumb, because the problem was not in my skin but under it. I didn't go.

Later, the clots would come back periodically, one here or there. Over a few months, it happened less and less. Now it mostly happens if I use my hands for rough work, like shoveling or raking, too bad because I like to work. But it can also happen if I'm just pumping gas or doing really ordinary things. Nothing happens when I do these things and then one day I'll get 2 to 4 clots all at once and they hurt a LOT. After a day or two they soften and turn into gigantic blue bruises and gradually go away, leaving tender blue lumps.

When my hands are cold and pale, I can see the specific places where the veins enlarged on different occasions leaving blue bumps that definitely were not there before this all started.One enlarged vein that has swelled up repeatedly is in a joint and sort of hurts all the time if I push on it. As far as I can tell, this is like varicose veins of the fingers. I don't have this anywhere else on my body. I am lean, don't smoke,and am taking only one drug, which shouldn't cause this. I am not post menopausal yet. My 18 year old son had it once and hasn't complained again since. I was more worried about him having this. :)

But it's weird for sure and hurts, and having clots is dangerous if they get loose and get to the lungs or brain and block the circulation. My sister had a blood clot in her lungs after surgery and nearly died... I'm thinking taking low dose aspirin would be good, but I already bruise easily. It makes no sense...

Lillybee, you are so young. What prescription did they give you? It's true about the smoking and birth control pills being a bad combo for clots. Do you have the strength to quite smoking? I know it's hard to do, but not impossible at all, and the health benefits for the rest of your life would be huge.

Quitting dramatically reduces your risk of both lung cancer and heart disease, which together kill about 400,000 smokers each year. With the blood clot thing, it seems like a pressing issue for you. Smoking also increases the likelihood that you'll have respiratory infections like bronchitis and pneumonia and miss more work than average and increases your risk of emphysema, which is a terrible disease. (I watched a friend die of it.) I don't mean to be morbid, but it would be so great if you could get off the cigarettes now while you are still young and healthy. And it might help with the blood clots in the fingers.

Good luck to both of you.
Asking

I get them too, almost always in the middle fingers on both my hands. I am 26 and have been getting them since my teens, but never found them troublesome enough to mention to anybody until I had a very painful one in my right hand a couple of weeks ago.

I happened to mention it to my girlfriend who said she had never heard of anything like it (I had just been assuming everybody got them and just got on with it!). My mum hadn't either. When I asked my dad he showed me one and said he had been getting them all his life too, but again had thought nothing of it and never sought any medical advice.

I am very fit and healthy, take no form of drug or medication, don't smoke, drink little and exercise very regularly. My father has always been a keen sportsman too, so I think it may be a genetic condition rather than drug or health related.

I am hesitant to see anybody about it as I think I may just hit the brick wall of medical ignorance on the subject that everybody else seems to have had.

I am a 40 yr old male. I take no drugs and never have smoked. So for me, the blood clots have nothing to do with medication.

I finally got in to see the dermatologist. But the blood clot had finally reduced in size and is no longer painful so the dermatiologist did nothing to it. He said almost exactly the same thing as my general doctor... they both say that it is a blood clot that formed due to an injury. They say that I probably injured my middle finger w/ out even realizing it.

I don't buy the injury thing since I've had similar lumps in my fingers after driving for many hours without a break. I'm not sure if the clot is reducing on its own or if the aspirin I have been taking is helping some. I guess it is just going to be one of those things that has no real good reason for occurring. Sure was painful for a few weeks, making it difficult to do some things.

I often notice them when I am driving. It's often when my finger rubs the steering wheel that I first notice one. Ouch. But I could have just started driving and notice one, like I did yesterday.

As a health problem, it's mostly trivial, or just annoying, but several different health care people have expressed concern because clots can travel to other parts of the body and cause strokes. I don't know how seriously to take the problem. I have not been on any hormones for a year and yet I am still getting them, so I agree that's not the cause, though it may have made it worse.

So has anyone found out what specialist dr to go too? I am having the same issue in my right middle finger and have gangrene. My finger gets swollen and purple and hurts like crazy. I went to get some testing done and they referred me to a Rheumatologist, which does not make any sense. I have to wait 2 weeks before I can see him and my finger keeps flaring up and looks and feels worse then before. Has anyone made any sense out of this or has gotten any answers??

HI
I have a daughter who is now 6 years old.She had a swollen finger since birth and it all started with a small dot. As she grew, the dot also grew.It is purple/blue in colour and you could see the blood veins. I had to make sure that she doesn't play with any sharp items because this will make the blood flow non-stop.I have been to many hospitals.First they referred me to the Paed, then the surgeon, then to the paed again, then to dermatalogist and YES until now I don't actually know who should be responsible for this case. Since my daughter is growing up, she starts to realize what's happening to her finger. It really effects her psychologically. I hope that a laser treatment can shrink her swollen finger.I don't want her(in the future) to blame me for taking any initiative to cure her finger. I've been to 4 hospitals already and I am trying to get another appointment at another hospital.

My son hasn't had any more. Mine are just little leftover purple bumps. If I use my a hands to do manual labor, I often get one.

To tahpape, this sounds not life threatening, but certainly something you would want to get taken care of. Do you have health insurance for your daughter? Why do you keep going to different hospitals?

If in fact they are blood clots, have your doctor test you for Antithrombin iii defeciency. I have this, it is a hereditary disease, it causes blood clots.

Im just guessing but if this was genetics your son would get them the around the same time as you but it maybe some virus or something else flowing around the house, because you got them first then maybe you passed it on to your son?

Thanks. I don't think he's had any more. He's a teenager. I'm a lot older and just started getting them a couple of years ago, so we did not get them at the same time. I think him getting a couple once was just a fluke. Lately, I bigger ones on other parts of my body. I have an appt with a rheumatologist, but not 'til next month. That was the soonest...

I have been tested and have slow clotting (high PTT).

Thanks for the answers!

I had blood clots in my fingers as well about two years ago. I had an angiogram and found that I actually have an arterial defect in that I am missing an intact palmar arch, an artery that connects the radial artery and the ulnar artery. The purpose of the palmar arch is to provide continued blood flow to the digits if you for some reason have diminished blood flow from one of the two arteries. In addition to this I also have very deep set arteries. A hump had formed in my radial artery which made the blood swirl around at the base of the hump creating blood clots, tiny pieces broke off and lodged in the capillaries of my fingertips, since they were not able to pass they over time calcified. I did have to have surgery to repair the radial artery and remove a large clot that was just below my index finger on the palmar side and had the nerve endings to the effected fingertips sheared off so that I did not have the constant pain and sensitivity to hot and cold. My fingers are all still usuable, I do still have some feeling in each without the pain. I have now encountered a similar problem in one of my toes and am in the process of the same diagnostic tests I had before. It is very frustrating, but I encourage you to be persistent. Ask your doctor for an evaluation by a vascular surgeon. If the blood clots are forming in your arteries they are likely to get lodged and unable to travel any further, if however they are forming in your veins they can travel to your brain or lungs and be very deadly. Preventative medicine such as an aspirin regimen are important but finding out why the clots are forming and where they are forming should be priority. If you don't get the answers or referrals you need from your primary care physician seek a second opinion.

Wow! That was fascinating. Thanks for writing, and welcome to Ask Me Help Desk. I hope you stick around.

My clots are definitely in my veins. But I never have any when I get to the rheumatologist. I'll mention them when I see him next.

I am sorry that you have experienced so much pain in your fingers, and now your toes, too. :( I hope it's easily resolved.

PS. The new rheumatologist says I DO have rheumatoid arthritis, unlike the one I saw in 2006. This could explain a lot of things.

This press release suggests there's a connection between rheumatoid arthritis and the protein fibrin, which is involved in blood clotting.
Blood clotting protein linked to rheumatoid arthritis