Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
all - i broke my ankle in mid-december, then had surgery on it 10 days later. i have a plate, 6 screws and a pin as souvenirs.
i've known all along that the pin needed to come out, the rest is intended to stay in. the pin pull is all that now stands between me and being able to start physical therapy so i can bear weight on my left leg. yippee!
but, there are problems -
* when i asked about bridging over from warfarin to lovenox, my ortho poo-pooed any need for that. "ah, no big deal. it's a small incision, pull the pin out, a few stitches...it's quick and you don't need to quit the coumadin." okay, makes sense. and my PE dr said 'i'll leave it up to your ortho", so...one vote for don't quit.
* the paperwork arrives for my surgery (in an outpatient center attached to a hospital) from my ortho's office. the instructions say 'quit coumadin five days before." huh? did they change their vote? a call should resolve all this...but...
* then i get a call from the outpatient center. not only are they questioning my ortho keeping me on warfarin for the surgery, they tell me i'm booked for *an hour* in surgery - and that the ortho indicated i'd have general anesthesia. for a so-called simple surgery? sounds like one vote against and now a tie vote.
has anyone here had a minor surgical procedure and *not* stopped taking their warfarin or coumadin? i'm beginning to lose confidence in my ortho given the mixed messages. TIA for your input.
i've known all along that the pin needed to come out, the rest is intended to stay in. the pin pull is all that now stands between me and being able to start physical therapy so i can bear weight on my left leg. yippee!
but, there are problems -
* when i asked about bridging over from warfarin to lovenox, my ortho poo-pooed any need for that. "ah, no big deal. it's a small incision, pull the pin out, a few stitches...it's quick and you don't need to quit the coumadin." okay, makes sense. and my PE dr said 'i'll leave it up to your ortho", so...one vote for don't quit.
* the paperwork arrives for my surgery (in an outpatient center attached to a hospital) from my ortho's office. the instructions say 'quit coumadin five days before." huh? did they change their vote? a call should resolve all this...but...
* then i get a call from the outpatient center. not only are they questioning my ortho keeping me on warfarin for the surgery, they tell me i'm booked for *an hour* in surgery - and that the ortho indicated i'd have general anesthesia. for a so-called simple surgery? sounds like one vote against and now a tie vote.
has anyone here had a minor surgical procedure and *not* stopped taking their warfarin or coumadin? i'm beginning to lose confidence in my ortho given the mixed messages. TIA for your input.
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
I've had colonoscopies where my GI doc wanted me off warfarin for 5 days. I think this is pretty standard. That's not even technically a surgery, but I was to have biopsies. So I bridged for that with lovenox.
It really comes down to the surgeon's preference, I think, because he's the one dealing with the bleeding and the overall procedure. I'd call the surgeon and just say, give me a straight answer. That would irk me too, getting conflicting info.
this is the same ortho that either reviewed my pre-surgery test results (on the original ankle surgery) and ignored an elevated white blood cell count, or never looked at the results at all, and continued on w the surgery as scheduled. i wound up w a full-blown infection after surgery instead of something my body was apparently dealing with fine on its own. he's renowned around here as a brilliant surgeon, but apparently he's so anxious to get the show on the road he's ok w winging it and thinking everything will turn out alright. doesn't work as well for me!
* had a meeting w my surgeon and his nurse regarding the contradictory information they provided about maintaining or stopping the warfarin. surgeon's final answer was 'don't worry, it's quick (one hour is the standard timeframe provided to the outpatient center, regardless of how short the surgery is) - you won't bleed out. i referenced other situations i'd seen here on the board ("but i have a friend whose dentist bridged him for a minor dental procedure") and his response was - "ah, dentists. they don't know what they're doing" (can you tell this guy has a ton of bravado? great surgeon, though!) he explained the reasoning behind doing a general as well, and i'm ok w it.
* but later, i met w my internist (who originally dx'ed the DVT/PE and who i trust completely) and she said...'i don't like it. let's bridge w lovenox.' and when she said that, i immediately knew it was the right decision for *me*. it's a conservative approach, and i feel much better with this strategy. so i'm bridging beginning today for a tuesday surgery.
wish me luck - i should have my immobility behind me once this pin gets pulled. i'm so ready to be among the able-bodied again!