Coumadin and Hockey Refereeing ?

[steve c]

Greetings All!

Life has returned pretty much to normal. I have had some bouts with A-Fib and the doc has me on 5 mg of Coumadin every day but Monday and Wednesday (7.5 mg).

I still want to referee house league roller hockey, but they have warned me against it. One accidental knock to the head and there may be trouble.

My conflict is that I am a referee and "not likely" to be involved in any contact ("not likely", the operative phrase). I enjoy it and rely on the paycheck.

Does anyone else out there have a similar situation or know someone who may be in a situation like this?

If so, how do you/they approach it?

Thanks!
Steve

 

[Ross]

Hi Steve

I guess I'd answer this with a question: How much risk are you willing to endure? While it's true that a head injury could be very bad, the likelihood is small. Is there a way for you to protect your cranium while being a ref? I know you'd look kind of silly in a helmet refing, but I don't know that I'd want a stray puck to smack me in the noggin either.

I guess I'd say, "If it makes you happy, do it" because if your not happy, what's the point of everything else?

 

[terry40]

Hi Stevec

Hi Stevec

It's great that you've recovery is going so well you want to get back to the norm.

I'm an NHL hockey fan, and most of the refs and linemen wear a helmut, it's a rule there now anyway.

Maybe you want to protect yourself with padding and a helmut, you can always stop if it get too rough.

Take care,

Terry40

 

[Jcrown]

I'm also a ref both in USA hockey (Level 3 competitive) and now that I live in the middle east, I do some duty in the IIHF doing international competitions. I'm trying to assess the same risks. :/ 30 years old and 4 months since mech VR

 

[Protimenow]

It's great that you've recovery is going so well you want to get back to the norm.

I'm an NHL hockey fan, and most of the refs and linemen wear a helmut, it's a rule there now anyway.

Maybe you want to protect yourself with padding and a helmut, you can always stop if it get too rough.

Take care,

Terry40

If Helmut isn't available, perhaps you can use a helmet, instead. Helmut is probably pretty heavy and may keep falling off your head.

(All kidding aside, your higher INR means that if you get bumped and banged around, you'll probably develop bruising that is larger than any that you've had before. Also - if you get hit in the head, you may be having a lot more head CT scans than you used to, just to confirm that there is no intracranial bleeding).

 

[tom in MO]

You can't really "assess risks" w/o data on the severity and frequency of head injuries to referees in your type of hockey league. Even with the data, you would not be able to tell how many of the hits that "were not a problem" would have been a problem for you being on warfarin. You may be able to find out the relative risk of a head injury to a hockey referee, but where the info could be gotten is hard to know (e.g. insurance companies probably have the data, but won't give it up.)

If I were you, I wouldn't give it up, but I'd wear a helmut, since a hockey puck at full speed can do some damage. If your INR is between 2-3, it will take 2 times as long for any bleeding to stop, thus your "bruise" will be 2 times larger.