Active Life and Coumadin usage

[Natanni]

Motorsports- Nathan rides a fatboy and a rather large ATV. He does wear a helmet, and is also purchasing some sort of chest/abdominal protection for both he and our fully coaguated son . These sports and dangerous, no matter what. He does all of these with his surgeon's/cardio's blessings (maybe not mine )

I will say it is a little interesting at our son's hockey games these days. Few times the puck has come flying up into the stands with one near miss. They hit with quite a "WHACK", and leave an impressive hole in the wall. I always stand right under Nathan, like that is going to help


A bar fight may not be a good idea....

 

[Mb]

Right after my husband;s surgery, the new cardio asked what he did for a living. I told them he was a general contractor. He told me he would not be able to do that anymore. Now.....he was right. My husband is not well enough to work, but he was wrong about the coumaden. My husband's hobby is woodworking, and he uses saws, drills, etc. every week. Never been injured. Now, due to dizziness he shouldn't be on a ladder, nor does he do other things that might be dangerous, but all in all, he does everything he has the stamina for. Which now that I think of it, isn't all that much.

Marybeth

 

[Mary]

I think we've had several former firefighters post that they weren't allowed to continue their jobs after valve replacement with coumadin usage.

 

[Ross]

I think we've had several former firefighters post that they weren't allowed to continue their jobs after valve replacement with coumadin usage.

Yes and I think it's more because of myth thinking then it is reality. It's as if the FD's look at a valve replacement receip as disabled whether they're on Coumadin or not.

 

[Arpy]

For my 2 bobs worth...

I am simply more aware of what I do and how I am doing it.

Workwise I still work in a remote location, in an underground mine - just have to be stringent in ensuring your own safety. But the risks with regards to major bleeding from injury are obvioulsy increased given the difficulty in being able to get to decent medical care (400km to nearest hospital or by flying doctor back to Perth- at best 3 hours by plane). Admittedly I no longer do this full time as was the case pre operation and I tend to limit my time underground.

Sport / recreation wise I will still do anything I did before - although full contact sports with a capacity for head injury would make me think twice. Having said that cycling on roads is sometimes a pretty dangerous sport!!!

As for skydiving / base jumping ... As I understand it, it is the air / earth interface that generally proves to be problematic without a properly functioning device to limit your downwards acceleration. The immediate deceleration upon contact with said air/earth interface creates "issues" for all people with no discrimination whatsoever - regardless of gender, race, religion, valve type or coumadin therapy!

Russell

 

[OldManEmu]

Arpy I agree with you skydiving / base jumping if things go wrong, Warfarin is probably not going to be one of your concerns.

 

[Mary]

Arpy I agree with you skydiving / base jumping if things go wrong, Warfarin is probably not going to be one of your concerns.

For experienced skydivers, coumadin might not be a big issue.
For someone just starting out, it would be.
When you're first learning to land, your contact with the earth rarely goes smoothly. I broke my ankle on my first jump, not because I landed so badly, but due to the wind catching my chute and dragging me 50'. Unfortunately my toe was stuck in the ground, and the pull on the ligament popped a small bone chip.
It takes a while before most learn to land standing up.
Everyone is required to fill out an extensive liability release before starting instruction, and you are asked if you have any heart problems. If you do, you are done before you start. My valve stenosis hadn't been found when I first started, but it was later on, and I was "grounded". I assume I could go return with my bovine valve, but I don't know if it would be allowed with a mechanical.

 

[Bionic Valve Tim]

Just chiming in on skydiving, though I suspect the argument is purely academic for most of us here.

In my pre-surgery days I jumped ~220 times and I'm not sure I see any increased risk to coumadin users. That is, increased vs. non-coumadin users--not vs. non-skydivers

I can't ever remember a jump that caused any bleeding, and it seems like any events that would be a concern from a head (or internal) injury would be catastrophic in nature, regardless of INR

In my experience, skydiving would be analogous to skiing (which I did all through my youth) from a coumadin standpoint. Note: I'm not trying to say that skydiving is as safe as skiing, but if we exclude death events (quite an exclusion!), the *bleed* dangers seem comparable to me

It's been 8 years or so since I jumped and I have no real plans to do it again, but if I wanted to, I don't think coumadin would give me much pause.

Finding a drop zone willing to let me (or anyone post-VR) on their plane might be another issue!

My $.02
Tim

 

[mtkayak]

Alcohol usage

Alcohol usage

I'm not suggesting you drink or that I drink that much but.... Last weekend I went to a friends Birthday party and drank like a fish! I had no intention of doing that but it happened. Anyway my INR came back at 3.3 that week. That's the best it's been since I've been tested. My target range is 3.0 - 3.5. Perfect! Go figure!!!!!!

My Cardiologist preaches "consistency", you can drink and eat what you want as long as you remain consistent with your diet. On the otherhand, my Primary Physician wants me to adhere to the standard "no more than 2 beers a day" and stick to the Vitamin K outline. My Surgeon is kinda "middle of the road" about it. He says "everything in moderation" is fine. So, you got 3 different doctors with 3 different opinions and answers. I've read and heard so much about Coumadin that I don't know what to believe! Hell, I guess I'm just going to live life as I see fit.