My mother had a stroke about 5 months ago and we are considering opening the blood thinning aggrenox capsules and giving her half the dosages with applesause. She is already on the lowest dosage available. It's always a crapshoot to take the chance to alter medication as your doctor will tell you.
The only thing aggrenox does is allow the blood to get through areas where the passages are very small due to calcification etc., so keeping the blood thin is important.
She has severe arthritis in one knee in particular and has difficulty rehabbing because the knee fills with blood due to the arthritis and she cannot get to the point of standing to do the therapy. The coumadin has left her depressed, dizzy, cold and overall loss of appetite. She wants to recover but this drug is very difficult. It comes to the point of quality of life...she is 77 years old and we want to start looking at something else besides coumadin? Any suggetions?
Does anyone know what to take for an alternative to Aggrenox? I had a TIA almost 4 years ago and was put on Aggrenox, well, my husband will be losing his job in a week due to the economy which also means we will be losing our health insurance as well. I asked my doctor if he could take me off it and put me on something else and all he said was he would prefer I stayed on Aggrenox. I don't think we can afford it because it is $305 for a month supply!
Aggrenox, Plavix, and Aspirin must be discontinued for 7 days prior to injection and Ticlid 14 days prior to injection. Coumadin should be discontinued 3-4 days prior to injection and you will need to have blood work completed within 24 hours prior to procedure.
drink 1-2 full cups water 60 minutes prior to injection. eat a LIGHT meal. you may have 1-2 pieces of toast or crackers for breakfast if your injection is scheduled in morning hours.
all of that is listed on my paper.
He takes an aspirin a day as he was having recurrent TIAs and the risk on Coumadin was too great. He tried Plavix(was allergic) and Aggrenox which increased the headache frequency. We are just at a loss with his current neurologist and feel he is at a loss of what to do. We are seeing a new neurologist on Thursday with the hopes of finding something that will help.
Duke University Medical Center recommended the target range of 3.0 to 3.5 for the St Jude Medical leaflet valve. I have been on it since 1993. The instability has been only the last three years or so. Here's a link to a presentation that suggests vitamin K and the logic for doing so; http://www.dcpa.us/slides09/sun05.trujillo.vitk.
My father in law is an alcoholic who has Atrial Fibrillation and is on coumadin. His cardiologist will not perform a cardioversion for him until his INR is within an acceptable level but it never is! The coumadin nurses frequently tell him his levels are too high and tell him to not take any coumadin for days at a time then the cardiologist tells him his INR is top low and they post pone the cardioversion.
We usually admit the patients 3 days prior to the surgery when we withhold coumadin and start heparin once the INR is less than 2.0. After surgery we usually start the heparin 12 hours after the surgery and coumadin shortly thereafter. The patient usually don't leave the hospital until their INR above 2.0. These are not hard and fast rules, and some physicians are more careful than others.
The body has a hard time clotting the blood due to aging. Also, Coumadin is hard on the arteries and with her age her arteries may be weak or thin. Coumadin is a very strong blood thinner and has some very serious side effects such as stomach cancer. It also can cause osteoporosis. Before her doctor starts her on any blood thinner, make sure that she has blood drawn and it is proven that her blood is thick enough to require this. You also may want to seek a second opinion.
t do an ablation. I am now wearing and event monitor for 30 days. I have a feeling he wants me to go on coumadin. I don't want to do that because I am very active and I am petrified of bleeding out. when I went to my accupuncturist she said she believes it is happening because of the sympathetic nerve due to the stress I have been under. I also read where taking 40mg of vitaminB6 helps the arrhythmia. What are your thoughts on my situation.
She has really bad swelling in her legs, from the knees down, including her ankles and feet. Since her Coumadin dosage was doubled due to low INR levels about 6 months ago, the swelling has gotten worse. I understand that correlation is not causation, but is this common?
Also, do they ever decrease one's dosage of blood thinners, or is it always the other way around.
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