Recent content by bstew7890

I like the ticking. It's never kept me up at night. Coumadin has been a piece of cake for me. Checks every 4-6 weeks. If I lived in a rural area without a coumadin clinic it might make a difference for me...

It's my understanding that many people stay on it for life, but I got a different drug and feel fine with it. Check with your doctor. Call the office and ask. Every patient is different.

I was having trouble thinking straight on metoprolol. I was in a fog and couldn't seem to prioritize anything to save my life! I made a phone call to my cardiologists office and was switched to diltiazem. My head was clear in a few days, but now I can't seem to figure out why I'm on it...

Well it's been a year and I currently am feeling great! A couple of weeks ago I started taking diltiazem and dropped the metoprolol and my brain is noticeably sharper.

I'm 46 and have been on coumadin for the past 11 months, since my AVR. I see a nurse (CNP) at the local coumadin clinic monthly and asked early on about the same concern. Alcohol itself does not affect INR but alcohol does increase the effectiveness / efficiency of coumadin, so the net result...

I'll just chime in to say that I haven't found Warfarin to be problematic. Maturity is something to consider but kids do grow up, and there's nothing like a grown up situation to give them the opportunity to prove it. (Yeah, I'm an optimist, but I've seen it work many times.)

A nurse got me a cup of coffee my second day post op, but only to help with the constipation from the pain meds. I was like your husband regarding caffeine prior to surgery, but I had a take it or leave it feeling about coffee for several weeks after.

I ride a motorcycle too, a Kawasaki Vulcan 750, and I intend to continue. I frequently see patients in my Coumadin clinic wearing riding gear and carrying helmets so I know I'm not alone. My doctor does not approve but has no objections to me riding a bicycle. Ironically, I have lost more blood...

I had periods where I lost some vision on my left side. It happened over several days during the 2nd week after surgery. It seemed to happen most often when I stood up and went away after resting a while. My vision is as it was before surgery now.

I took potassium gluconate for a few days once because I was having muscle cramps. The only problem was that I couldn't poop... Now they've put me on Potassium Chloride and the only problem was that a blood test came back showing my potassium was too high (hyperkalemic - I learned a new word...

I actually saw my surgeon today and he said that because there was some chest hair present any culture swab would have come back as staph. If there had been a significant amount of drainage it might have been accurate.

I've been getting bloodwork done weekly and my white cell count is normal. I am packing the wound with sterile gauze soaked in iodine (betadyne?) and changing it 3 times a day, plus I'm taking cephalexin orally. No mention of a wound vac.

I have an appointment with a primary care Doctor tomorrow so I will be discussing it. I call the surgeon (his assistant) today and she assured me that if he had thought it was serious he would have done a culture. So I guess we can take it as a good sign that it didn't appear serious to the...

No, no fever. I saw the applicator he used go into the trash so I'm sure there was no culture done. I will call and ask about that today. Thanks for sharing!

Hi Lyn. No, they did not do a culture. What did they do in the surgery where they found the "pocket" under the sternum? Was there an alternative to removing the sternum?