They did say that my relative youth was one of the reasons they discommended getting the filter installed. They'd have put me on antithrombolytics before putting me in for surgery.

But yeah, better safe by having a coffee filter jammed into your leg than sorry you had some gigantor clot end up someplace really dangerous. One of my husband's coworkers actually had a clot that ran from his left ankle all the way up to his heart before they found it, and basically had it vacuumed out. *shudder*