Comments on: Blood thinners

By: eileen

eileen — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 16:20:46 +0000

question please help my husband has
been on plavix 75mg plus 81mg of aspirin
he is suffering from cervical and lubar
parin the doc wanted to give him 3
epidurals 3-4 wks apart and transfer
him to lovenox injectables 2 times/day
is this the same as plavix. the last
time he stopped plavix for 5 days before
a colonscopy he had another mi

please answer thanking you in advance
for your help. they also gave me a rx
for phentyl patches 25mg. i don’t
know whether he should do that or try
the epidural. the pain mgmt doc
says pain is so wide spread that
epidural has 50% chance of working

By: Larry

Larry — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 19:03:25 +0000

I noticed you failed to note the other side effects of Plavix , Such as TTP , a life threatning illness associated with plavix , that has a 95 % mortality rate if not treated right away

By: Zoe Murphy

Zoe Murphy — Thu, 20 May 2010 01:23:57 +0000

my uncle got stomach ulcers because he took a lot of Aspirin to take care of his high blood pressure.:”-

By: Rachel

Rachel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 20:30:24 +0000

As a pharmacist I would like to stress and reiterate that you do not have to ‘limit’ foods rich in Vitamin K, you simply need to be consistent in how much you eat on a regular basis.
Your INR will be monitored monthly, and your warfarin (coumadin) dose adjusted to your personal chemistry based on YOUR normal diet.
It is important to realize that, just because spinach (just one of many vitamin K-rich food) is on sale this week does NOT mean you should increase your consumption during the duration of it being cheaper. You CAN eat spinach everyday,however, as long as you are consistent week to week, and roughly day to day how much you consume.

It is not reasonable to compare doses of warfarin between patients (i.e 2mg dose vs. a 5mg)because the dose of warfarin is based on each person’s required dose to overcome the vitamin k level that is in their own blood based on their own INR lab results.

Thank You, I just wanted to clear up the misconception that any limits are placed on a desired diet.

That said, every patient should be counseled about making any big changes in their diets, like starting a new ‘fad’ diet and how this can/will cause huge swings in their INR if they are making radical changes.

Patients can change their lifestyle and move from a highly processed diet to a ‘healthier’ lifestyle including more whole vegetables, fruits, grains, etc. These patients should get monitored WEEKLY for INR changes in response to their ‘new’ diets, NOT wait for their monthly check as this could be disastrous.

By: kim anderson

kim anderson — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 06:45:42 +0000

thankyou chris, a very imformative and well stated article. you did it again. i too take daily 325mg of aspirin and plavix 75 mg. another side affect of plavix is diarrhea, i can tesify to that. LOL you also need to have a periodic blood test called a bleeding time to check your bloods clotting time. i have had several of those too. so i feel confident that my meds are helping to prevent another ischemic/clot stroke. plavix keeps your blood platelets from sticking together to form a clot. i was also on coumadin right after my stroke then switched to plavix which i preferred to coumadin.

By: lenny harrison

lenny harrison — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 23:26:51 +0000

i just wanted to say that i have been on warfarin for about 8 years, and it has kept me stroke free because my blood for some reason loves to clot

By: Donna Straugh

Donna Straugh — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:48:00 +0000

Another excellent article Chris. I have been taking 1 low-dose aspirin a day since I met yp with stroke on 1-1-05. Your information helps all stroke survivors to be much more “aware” following stroke.