Oh, I'm sorry to hear that!

Wonderful!

prohealth, please tell me you're being sarcastic.

Ugh...so sorry!

So sorry, are you going to be able to go back on your Pradaxa?

Pradaxa is normally only discontinued for 1-2 days prior to any surgery (maybe slightly longer for high risk surgery - 3-5 days). The medication is out of your system 1-2 days after discontinuing and in most casess can be restarted up to 24 hours after the completion of the surgery.

There is actually a warning statement on Pradaxa saying that you are at increased risk of stroke or clotting if Pradaxa is not restarted as soon as possible following surgeries or procedures:

http://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?id=41640

http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/ucm332912.htm

I had to be off wararin for 10 days due to a large polyp removed from my colon, over healing and bleeding concerns. So I suspect there may be some instances where the risk of bleed outweighs the risk of a clot, although if there's a specific documented risk of stroke or clotting if Pradaxa isn't restarted immediately, that is something anyone on Pradaxa aught to be aware of and doctors should be clued in on for sure.

yes, the doctor and I had this conversation. I had to stop for 7 days before the colonoscopy because I had internal bleeding. Then they removed both polyps and a tumor. The tumor caused bleeding. So I had 7 more days to wait. Doing fine now and no cancer in the surrounding tissues.

Yeah, I can then see why they had to hold the anticoagulants because of the potential for bleeding. Usually when my doc removes polyps or does a biopsy it's a small amount of tissue and not a reason for concern. But the big polyps and in your case a tumor, that's another story and it's hard to heal from that if you're on anticoagulants, from what I understand.

I hope you are doing ok and you make a full recovery

I'm scared to come off the thinners now. What happens if you have to get a tooth pulled. If I ever have to get a tooth pulled or any medical procedures that require me to be off of Warfarin i'm going to use 30-40 MMhg stockings and hope nothing happens.

Sorry to hear this, Purple, but you were in a bad spot without a lot of options. Wish they could have restarted sooner, or gone to heparin injections, but even that might have been problematic.

It's probably small consolation, and you likely already know this, but the risks, with colonoscopy + warfarin, are quite real. My buddy's uncle died from that, they either did not take him off soon enough or restarted him too fast.

The bummer is, you would think a colonoscopy would be lower risk b/c they have a scope, you'd think they can see the bleeding, at least. Same thing with endoscopy. They wanted to do mamometry on me because I have trouble swallowing-- I've had it for years due to another medical condition-- but I absolutely refused, there's no camera in mamometry. (And it's also a junk test that never diagnoses anything definitively-- risk vs. return was poor. With colonoscopy, it's a different equation.)

Sounds like they got the recent clot fast. Hoping for a speedy recovery...

Well it makes me dad to see others have to suffer because of all of this. Reading all of your posts and Catalyzt's post just makes the reality of life on warfarin really sink in. It can be so depressing at times.

I meant to say it makes me sad.

I'm so sorry you clotted but I'm glad they got all the cancer. I hope your rehab goes well.

Sometimes when they remove a large tumor or mass from your colon, despite cauterizing it and / or clipping the wound closed, the risk for bleeding from that after the procedure is a concern when you're on anticoagulants. That, and being on anticoagulants will hinder healing in our colon, and therefore continue to bleed. That's why in some situations, they tell you to hold the anticoagulants after the colonoscopy procedure for a while.

Jerry, I'm on warfarin long term, Ive been on it for over 5 years. I live a great life, and haven't had any issues. The majority of situations are completely manageable, safe and turn out fine. It just requires some planning and having discussions with your doc about risk.

I just mentioned in another post that I've had 6 colonoscopies in the last 3 years, some where Ive been able to go right back on warfarin and Lovenox, and a couple where I had to hold warfarin and Lovenox post procedure due to bleeding risks for a week to 10 days. I had gall bladder surgery and was allowed to start Lovenox and warfarin after the procedure. I know people here whove had wisdom teeth removed while on warfarin. So it just depends on the situation.