After much intermet research, I decided the warfarin would be better than one or more additional open-heart surgeries. Here is a good link to someone else's comments who faced this decision:
http://www.teamt.us/Mechanical_Vs_Tissue_Valves.htm
My new mechanical valve is working just fine. I can hear it tick when all is quiet - especially at night. The sound doesn't bother me at all. I'm thankful for a new lease on life!
After mt heart valve surgery. I had HIT. Another blood thinner was used it was very expensive but I cany temember the name.
You have a lot going on in your body that could make you feel bad, beside taking warfarin, and the warfarin is probably the least likely culprit.
The amount of warfarin that any given individual has to take to stay within an INR range of 2.0 to 3.0 (which is probably what the doctors mean when they tell you they want you at 2.5) will vary, depending on how rapidly that person's body can metabolize and excrete the warfarin.
What puzzles me is why a blood clot in arteries can be treated with aspirin/clopidogrel combine and the one in heart muscles will require warfarin? And why a blood clot should form on heart muscles which are dead for last six years?
I agree with you that even high dose of aspirin can cause bleeding. But over time I have got used to 150 mg of aspirin daily and psychologically my comfort level is higher.
Thankyou so much for sharing your thoughts.
They are unusual to the extent that, if especially if the person who had those symptoms had a mechanical heart valve, every effort should be made to rule out any other possible cause of the symptoms, because the alternatives to warfarin are not good for someone who has a mechanical heart valve. I think artificial heart valves are coming, probably within the next human generation, that will last much longer than current tissue valves and will not require warfarin like current mech valves do.
I believe it could be a FATAL mistake if you stopped taking the warfarin. Mechanical valves will clot without warfarin and this could cause a heart attack, stroke or heart failure and could cause you to have to have another open heart surgery. PLEASE ,PLEASE talk to your doctor about any changes in the warfarin.
I take warfarin everyday. I had aortic valve replacement in 2001 and had an artificial heart valve installed. The downside to that is I will have to take blood thinners for the rest of my life because of the artificial valve. That is not the case with a tissue valve. It has really not had any affect on me at all. The one thing that I know warfarin affects is Vitamin K. Vitamin K is what causes your blood to clot. Therefore the warfarin cancels out some of the Vit.
My husband has had Arrhythmia for about a year and a half. It started out and would come when ever. He has had a electrophesiaologist study done and is on beta blockers only when it occurs. The studys didn't pin point where his heart was misfiring and they said there was no reason why it is going on. About 3 months now it comes for 2 weeks and then it is gone for 2 weeks. Why the pattern? His Arrhythmia is like his heart skips a beat. I can put my head on his chest and hear it.
How do we define heart failure? Am I correct to say that it does not refer to an absolute state but more to the degree of inefficiency of the heart in performing its function? Is it true that when a person has heart failure, it doesn't mean that his/her heart is going to stop beating soon, and that death is imminent?
A cousin of mine has had chronic atrial fibrillation since 3 months ago.
I was diagnosed with RHD (mitral stenosis) and had mitral valvotomy done in 1988(open heart surgery/splitting open the mitral flaps) when Im 30 as I was planning for a family. I'm 51 yo now and I underwent gastroscopy & colonscopy at a hospital in Mar2010 as I was experiencing food poisoning and abdomenal distension, Results were clear except for a minor ucler in the small intestinal wall. A month later, my legs swelled and I was warded for CCF and atrial fribillation.
I've heard people in hospital tell the nurse that they refuse to take 'rat poison' and I think it's important to put this into perspective. Warfarin was first developed as a pesticide because it was noted how a small dose of anticoagulant would cause rats and mice to hemorrhage to death. So it was deliberately developed as an anticoagulant and it was found to have other uses, such as saving lives in humans suffering a thrombus.
25 years ago I had a heart attack and lost about 10% of the muscle in my left ventricle. With the help of meds and clean living I have done well.until about 5 years ago I started having A-Fib. I have had Cardioversion 6 times (twice in the month of June 2011) I was Cardioveted on June 27. The doctor gave me 2 pills of the drug Multaq on the 29th, and I was released from the hospital that day. I took another Multaq pill the next morning at 9am and had Cardiac Arrest at 1pm.
These drugs arent only used for heart disease. I had a stroke due to a 100 percent occlusion of the carotid artery. After being on warfarin and plavix separatelyI had a TIA ,I am currently on both,and so far so good.Is this normal that my bleeding and bruising disappeared after combing the two drugs? i am happy but confused.
Thanks
Terry926
This discussion is related to <a href="/posts/Heart-Disease/Plavix-vs-Coumadin/show/254168">Plavix vs Coumadin</a>.
continue warfarin therapy, withhold warfarin therapy for a period of time before and after the procedure, or temporarily withhold warfarin therapy and also provide a "heparin bridge" during the perioperative period. Which management option to follow is primarily determined by the characteristics of the patient and by the nature of the procedure.
I think Jerry's right -- my EP when going over possible scenarios, said, the procedure that makes it so you don't feel the afib, because you are not aware of it, makes it necessary to stay on blood thinners.
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