Knee pain therapy vs/Coumadin

[gailmann]

Good afternoon. I am a past member of this fine group, but have long since dropped out until......of course I had a problem!
I had surgery in May of 2000. During a angiogram it was discovered that I had a very large aortic anuerysm. I now have an artificial aorta and a St. Jude Valve. And, of course, I am on coumadin.
No real problems until recently. I had severe knee pain and went had a shot of some kind of steroid in my knee. Shortly afterward I had signs of internal bleeding. Come to find out I had an ulcer in my esophogus and the steroid combined with the coumadin made for a real bad problem.
Wound up in the hospital with coumadin discontinued and was told the shot in the knee was probably the culprit. I told the doctor I was on coumadin and he said "no problem, this is going into your knee and will not affect the coumadin".
Has anyone else heard of this before? Now this doctor wants to use something called Sinvisc. Says this will stay in the knee area.
What do I do?
Thanks for any info.
Gail Mann
Newbern, TN

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Hi Gail,

Welcome back. Whew......Coumadin and steroids.Very good friend is on that combination. It greatly effects her INR as you have seen. She's on Prednisione. That alone can slow your clotting time down. i.e., higher INR.

I would proceed with caution. Check your INR more frequently. Does not sound like your doctor had a handle on it. As with most anything that is injected or ingested....it can have an effect on your INR. Sometimes I feel doctors find their informaiton at the bottom of a "Cracker Jack" box. Scary for sure, especaiily to individulas whom are not educated.