Decision time

[Sherry]

Barry, you've gotten some really good advice from everyone here and ultimately will have to do what's best for you. Tough decision for sure. As Ross mentioned, the cost differential is substantial. (I'm on both Coumadin and an every other day dose of Plavix.) Secondly, Bonnie mentioned her sister getting all the bruises and knots. I can definitely concur with this. Since going on the Plavix a few years ago, I bruise like crazy, whether I've hit something or not. The bruising concerns me so much that I'm going to broach it with my general doc during my physical this month. Best of luck to you in your decision.

 

[ruth]

Tough decision to be sure.

Who's sponsoring the trial? I'd follow the money before making a decision. The makers of OnX or Plavix involved? Or is this an NIH trial?

I'd also want to know more about what life on Plavix is like. Has it been around long enough for there to be a generic form? Or, for a body of knowledge about its relative safety?

Ruth

 

[Soilman]

Thanks everybody! I can always count on my VR.com friends. Y'all haven't let me down yet! Though I'm going to keep and open mind to the information my pharmacist cousin will have for me when I see her on vacation next week, if nothing else, the comments made by Ross, Granbonny and Sherry have swayed me toward coumadin. As I stated earlier, I am a rather rugged individual. My job has me walking through woodlands, pastures, swamps, fields, through briars and thickets. I like to hunt, fish, woodwork, carpenter, do some mechanic work, garden, run and lift weights (light ones now.) As you can imagine, I am constantly getting scratched, cut, bumped and bursed. If Plavix is going to be worse on this than coumadin, then I think I'll have to pass. In fact, this is one of the big reasons I was interested in options that might lessen that effect.

 

[Ross]

Don't get me wrong, Plavix may not work on you like it did me, but I was coughing up blood taking it. With Coumadin, yeah you'll bleed a bit if you get scratched or thorns poke a hole in you, just as you always would, but it stops just the same too. Just takes a little longer and sometimes a little pressure.

I kid you not, the worst thing about Coumadin is finding someone who actually knows how to manage dosing. It seems that nearly all of the medical community is dumb to this equation. This is why most of us here are self dosing and self testing. If you find a good manager, it's not that big a deal. The key is finding one and that can be difficult, if not impossible.

I'm sorry, but I can't see myself, much less anyone else, being an experiment no matter how successful something looks to be when you know the outcome, should it be bad, equals a vegetable state or death.

 

[OldManEmu]

Trials

Trials

I wouldn't hesitate to take part in a trial, if something gets to this stage it has passed through lots of animal tests. It may lead to me having a more normal life. I know many of our members say warfarin isn't a big deal however, how many are in 20's, 30's and 40's and are limited with contact activities because of warfarin. For some life isn't "being there for the kids".

 

[Bradley White]

I would likely agree to be part of the trial. You can always go back to coumadin if you don't like the side effects of the plavix. I would want to first know what the stroke rate was in the animal studies for those on the aspirin/plavix regime.

 

[MikeHeim]

If I understand correctly, Plavix is not an anti-clotting agent as Coumadin is. It actually works similarily to aspirin. Hopefully, someone will come along with more information.

I can personally say that I was on it for six months after my surgery and didn't have a single issue.