surgery

[Birky]

I posted some time ago that I was having hernia surgery next month. Well, I went to see the Doc for my hand and he wants to do his surgery at the same time. Carpal tunnel and repair my thumb. I was so impressed with him since the first thing that he addressed was the coumadin issue and thinks that it would be a lot less worry this way. I have to go off the coumadin on 09/12 since the surgery is 09/16/04. The billing part of this will be a mess since the belly is with our private insurance and the hand is Workers Compensation. I guess I will have to let them work it out. He is going to take cartilage out of my arm and roll it up in a ball and put between the joint. I think I am going to have to be off the keyboard for at least 6 weeks. The Drs. in our area act like the coumadin is not an issue and I think try to ignore it. I can't say enough about this new Dr. We were talking and then it got quiet for some reason and he said that he could hear it ticking. I couldn't but he did. Is even going to come in to do the surgery on his day off. We need more like him.

 

[Ross]

I still see no need to have you come off the Coumadin. Sorry, I can't justify the risk.

 

[Birky]

surgery

I have read so many posts on coumadin in regards to surgery but I thought since the Cardio Surgeon is doing the repair that he should know. I went off when I had the wires removed but I know there is always a chance of something happening which is scary in itself. This is such a confusing issue and this is why I did not want the mechanical valve. I am going to check with him on bridging therapy. It has never been mentioned to me by anyone involved.thanks for your post.

 

[tobagotwo]

For the hand surgery, no. I've had hand surgery, with an anaesthetic that makes you groggy, but doesn't put you all the way out. They squeeze your arm dry, then place a tourniquet just below your shoulder before they start, and there is no blood in the hand when they open it up. It's far less bloody than having a wisdom tooth out. As such, I also can't see why they would require you to be off of Coumadin for hand surgery.

I don't know about the hernia surgery. Certainly they'd want you on Heparin or Lovenox to minimize the unprotected INR time, at least.

There are some recent postings about "If you have to go off Coumadin" in Al Lodwick's domain that you might want to look at.

Best wishes,