Quote:
Originally Posted by susansr
Hey Ron,
I too have been away from this website. sorry folks. Just read about your issue with blood clotting.
Did your doctors consider injections of other meds instead of treating you with coumadin?
As a fellow AA patient, I thought we would not be prone to developing blood clots. Wrong!! There are other "clotting factors" that allow even us to develop this problem.
I had a deep vein thrombosis in my calf following a trip to Italy this summer.
The treatment plan was an injection for 3 months daily of "Enoxaparin"; it belongs to a different family of blood thinners than coumadin.
I sent you an email with more details.
Hope this is helpful.
Susansr
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Hi Susan,
Great to hear from you again. I remember that you like to travel and glad you made it to Italy. Never heard how your trip to England went a couple of years ago. Yep, I considered my blood to be too thin to get a clot, but we are "special" folks, I guess. My platelets were at about 67,000 when I got my clot. I'd been diagnosed with pneumonia a week before and didn't respond to oral meds and got a DVT in leg and went to ER. CT scan found several clots in my lung and one in leg. They kept me 4 days in hospital with IV antibiotics and IM lovanox (Enoxaparin). Was discharged with Coumadin 2 mg a day and directions for one injection a day. First INR/PT level was 6.6!!! I got vitamin K pill immediately and the injections and Coumadin were stopped. I'm now on 1 mg tablet a day and no injections. I've been back 5X and only last visit did PT drop to 1.6. Doc and PA both said they have never seen a patient with such a strong reaction to Coumadin. Some patients get 10mg a day.
I wasn't on any trips, but had been taking lots of naps because of the pneumonia. Before I got sick I was riding my bicycle up to 60 miles a week and going to yoga and gym 2X weekly. I guess we just keep on getting the payout from winning the "poopie lottery". It took almost 2 months to start getting energy back, but I'm well on the way again. What dose of Coumadin are you on now and did they prescribe those terrible rubber support hose for you? Did you get a strong craving for green salads? The vitamin K in them must make it appealing since the body knows the blood is very thin. I'm supposed to get PT monitoring for at least 9 months and may get to go on baby asprin indefinitely after that. When you dodge a train like AA, you don't expect to be run down by a car! It doesn't seem fair, but nobody said it would be, did they?
Thanks again
Ron
PS-- didn't get email from you but new address is
rondewees@att.net