I have a question???

[terry40]

I got my first bug bite of the season, (not a west nile mosquito)
today when it started to itch (I wasn't scratching it), but I notice a huge bruise, larger than a silver dollar (not a bulls-eye rash either).

Question, Is the bruising because of the coumadin, I haven't been bruising up till now, and it's not in a location where I usually bump my leg???

This sounds stupid, but even with using bug repellant, I've always gotten bit ( last year was the worst), I was hoping "thee olde rat poison" would ward off these nasty pest.

Terry40

I've always heard it said there are no stupid question?!?!

 

[Georgia]

SPLAT

SPLAT

I sure don't have the answer to your question, but I gotta know!!! I get eaten alive in the summer - even last year when I was being very careful due to west nile. I guess everyone was being so careful and staying in that those of us who ventured out got bitten even with deepwoods OFF!

Anyway, if skeeter bites turn into huge bruises due to coumadin, I'm staying inside permanently.

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Would highly doubt your bruise was caused by a small bug bite. Maybe a sting? Mosquito bites are becoming more serious and scary with West Nile. There is no improvement since last year. They expect a far worse epidemic. The little buggers are already present here.

What works great are those little citronella wrist bands along with Off Skintastic. We also burn citronella candles in our yard in the evenings. Scary for sure. Saving my pennies for a nice screen gazabo.

 

[Guest]

I've seen some nasty bruises that people said were bug bites. But I really don't have any answers.

What I have wondered if why warfarin doesn't cause deformed baby mosquitoes. If raises havoc with human babies if the mother is taking it. Why can't it cause deformed mosquitoes that other mosquitoes would not find attractive and therefore not get a chance to reproduce?

Maybe you will turn into Mosquito Woman and make millions in comic books and movies.

 

[Nancy]

I was working in the yard and came in with a large swollen area under the skin which is from our wonderful black flies. They have an anesthetic and an anticoagulant in their saliva (if bugs can have saliva), and when they bite, the bite can bleed quite a bit in even unanticoagulated people. The bite is very itchy, and if you get enough of them in a small area, your lymph nodes near the bite will swell up for a time.

I imagine, if you had been bitten by one of those and were on Coumadin, it would have the potential of causing a bruise under your skin.

I've also noticed that the first few bug bites of the season cause much more trauma, then the same bite will later on. Joe had a silver dollar swelling on his forhead from a mosquito bite for about a half a day. It didn't bruise though, but maybe if had broken a tiny capillary, who knows?

Just a guess.

 

[terry40]

Thanks for the responses

Thanks for the responses

I'll only be moquito woman if I have some super powers, there's got to be some sort of trade off.



Terry40

 

[JimL]

The warfarin dosage that is appropriate for humans is way strong for mosquitos. Imagine, if you will, said mosquito landing on a warfarin arm, drinking his fill, and flying off -- into a red cloud as he bleeds to death. There are the superpowers; each of us warfarin takers have them.

 

[Ross]

I invision the little blood suckers exploding as they fly away.

 

[Guest]

Way to go!!!

 

[lcwhitney]

Bug bites and brusing

Bug bites and brusing

Get your PT checked!! I bruse badly with even the smallest bug bite when my INR is high. The last time this happened my INR was 9.8.

Lettitia

 

[terry40]

Lettitia

Lettitia

Thanks for the warning, but I have a hard time keeping it up in the normal range, your warning is noted and I'll be anxious to get my results.

I'm getting it tested this week on Wednesday.

Terry40

 

[terry40]

Jim & Ross

Jim & Ross

Are you thinking of the movie "Blade", where they inject EDTA a blood preservative, which prevents whole blood from clotting, into vampires and they explode????

I was just hoping they wouldn't want to bite me in the first place I don't care what happens to them afterwards, and all of us coumadin pt haven't seem to make a dent in reducing the mosquito population.

 

[terry40]

Nancy

Nancy

You are such a wealth of information, thank you for not letting me feel like I've just asked the dumbest question.

Yes those little black flies are bad.

Maybe if the guys are right us coumadin pts. are killing them off by our potent blood.

 

[Guest]

Out here on the semi-arid plains of eastern Colorado we pnly get about 12 inches of rain per year, so we don't have too many mosquitoes. We just worry about things with bad tails - scorpions and rattlesnakes. Now a scorpion sting makes a bad bad bruise with warfarin. One of my patients has been both hit by lightning and stung by a scorpion. They like to hide in tight places and she got it on the foot as she crawled under the top sheet into bed.

 

[Nancy]

Hi Al-

Thanks for giving me that icky, creepy, feeling. I'm not fond of spiders in the house, they make my skin crawl, but scorpions in the bedcovers??

Now I'm going to have to strip the bed to look for outside critters, and look under the bed for the bogeyman. Help!

 

[Ross]

Don't forget to check your closet Nancy.

 

[Nancy]

Oh no, Ross-

And my shoes, and all the folded clothes. Where does it end?

 

[Lorraine]

I just got a chance to read this thread. Sounds very interesting! The higher the dose of Coumadin your taking sounds like the skeeters would explode at the first bite! Wow! Blood Sucking little buggers! Serves them right. I worry about West Nile too. We've have abundance of mosquitoes already.

Glad we don't have scorpions here! HAve plenty of black widow spiders though! Yuck! Oh, Nancy, your'e going to have to strip your whole house it sems! Like Ross siad, don't forget the closets!


I did bruise last year sometimes when I got mosquito bites too. My INR must have been higher at the time, I guess. I tried to stayed covered or indoors when the mosquito are out, as I can't stand any kind of bug spray!

 

[JimL]

I tested at 2.4 yesterday, so I won't be exploding as many mosquitoes for a few days.... It's raining here today anyway.

I do have a minor coumadin question. If I understand correctly, the PT test measures how long it takes my blood to coagulate after it is exposed to the air. Wouldn't that mean that if there is a delay between the time the blood leaves my finger and the time it is placed on the test strip, the test results would be wrong? Yesterday the coumadin nurse pricked my finger, gathered a drop of blood, and then saw that she had forgotten to insert the test strip, which she did, and then we had to wait for the Coaguchek to be ready. Would that then mean that my actual INR is higher than 2.4?

I'm adjusting my dosage from 40 to 41 or maybe 42 per week, which is a minor change. I suppose I'm mostly curious about my INR in relation to the mosquito question. If I understand correctly, the higher the INR, the closer the mosquitoes are to the coumadin vehicle when they explode. I think I would prefer that the mosquitoes fly away at least a few feet, or even out of sight, before they explode....

 

[Nancy]

Looks like I'll just have to wrap myself up in a big ball of plastic and kiss the world Goodbye!

Let's none of us forget about dust mites, they're EVERYWHERE. Where can I hide???