Search results

Hey Tovah, I'm a fourth year medical student. Upset stomach, diarrhea, etc is a very common side effect of metformin when you initially start the drug. It will go away within a few weeks. We usually start people on the low dose of metformin and then slowly raise it over the following weeks to...

Rest assured, Folic Acid and B12 will not affect your INR. It has nothing to do with warfarin's interaction with blood clotting. Only things that can affect INR are vitamin K foods and medications/herbs/etc that change the metabolism of warfarin.

Just so everyone here knows, the reason for not wanting women on coumadin is two parts. First, the higher bleeding associated during/after pregnancy with coumadin. The second, and most important, is that coumadin is teratogenic, meaning that it can cause birth defects because it crosses the...

Hey Shirley, Its called hemolytic anemia. Its common with mechanical valves or stenotic valves. As the blood pumps through the valve, basically it disrupts the membrane of the red blood cell and cause them to lyse (break). Best case scenario is after they transfuse you and get your hemoglobin...

Thanks Hook and Dick, Thats a lot of good info. I never thought about tapping into the medical societies. I'm not out in the real world yet (still have one year of med school, then 3-4 yrs of residency) so I'm just trying to figure these things out before I get there. I know a lot of new...

Hey guys, I've posted on here before about my condition. Just as a quick summary, I had a bicuspid aortic valve repaired 6 years ago and will sometime in the near future need the aorta repaired in addition to the aortic valve again (currently tissue). I'm only 28, so looking into the future, I...

I have an Edwards-Carpentier bovine pericardial valve that is almost 6 years old. Its doing well according to my cardio. I get an echo once a year.

Do you mean aortic area? (not valve) use formula to calc area of circle Area of your aorta = pi x radius squared (use half the aortic diameter given on echo/CT/MRI to get radius) Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

I had a similar experience after my tissue AVR. Two weeks post op started having some mild shortness of breath and then developed a fever. Went to the ER and was diagnosed with a pericardial effusion. Was in the ICU for another 5 days during which they did a pericardiocentesis to drain 1 liter...

In my 3 years of medical school, I have not heard of rectal bleeding (from hemorrhoids or fissure) causing endocarditis. Endocarditis is associated with invasive procedures like dental work, colonoscopies and bladder procedures like cystoscopies (also stuff like IV drug use). Yes, the stuff that...

Aspirin has absolutely no effect on your INR. It works by inhibiting platelets from clumping together to form clots. Warfarin is working by inhibiting clotting factors used to hold the platelets together during clotting. Think of platelets as the bricks and the clotting factors as mortar. So...

The heel and the thumb could be nerve damage from pressure points or compression of the nerve during the operation. Most of the time anesthesia is good at preventing this by putting padding.,During long operations you are immobile so if your thumb is in the wrong position and compressed you can...

Congrats about getting the bp and cholesterol down. The situation may be a little different for you since you don't have a bicuspid valve, which is also a connective tissue disease that makes us prone to aortic disease. Also, my aneurysm is borderline needing surgery so my management is...

Hey Chris, I have a larger ascending aortic aneurysm than you and im still able to jog eithout restrictions. My cardio said to cut the weight lifting and contact sports. He also said I need keep my bp low (<120 systolic). Im currently on a beta-blocker (metoprolol). Keeping your bp as low as...

Joe, how is your BP when you're not having these dizzy spells? Sent from my SGH-T989 using Tapatalk 2

That website looks like such a load of crap. I wouldn't worry about what it says. Life expectancy should be the same assuming you suffer no complications and that you are able to adequately keep your INR within range to prevent strokes or bleeds.

No. Liver function is pretty much consistent unless you do something to damage it (ie drink too much alcohol, are obese and have a "fatty liver", take a medication which is toxic to the liver, etc). Eating healthier is a great thing so do that regardless. Remember that eating a lot of certain...

Something you can actually do at home for BPPV the "Epley Maneuver". This is what is done in the physician, PT, or chiropractor's office. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqokxZRbJfw If done a couple of times, you can usually fix the BPPV on your own. If this doesn't cure your vertigo, then...

hey Joe, This sounds more like Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo (BPPV)), rather than orthostatic hypotension or something cardiac related. But you definitely should go in to see your doctor to be sure. If its BPPV there are simple exercises to cure it which your doctor can do in the office...

Oh and "Bovine" arch is just one of the common (and normal) anatomical variations of the great vessels (the arteries that come off the aortic arch). Nothing to worry about regarding that.