Made it through gallbladder removal.

[Superman]

Had my gallbladder removed Friday afternoon. Went in to ER Wednesday. MRI showed a big stone blocking the exit duct with more behind. I was having frequent attacks. Gave me a couple doses of Vitamin K and as soon as I was down to 1.8 INR they were clear to move ahead. They wanted to give me plasma to add clotting factors, but I refused. I know they test for blood born diseases that they know of, but they don't know what they don't know.

I had them take my appendix while they were in there to get a two for one. Father, sister, and two of my sons had appendicitis. I felt strongly that I did not want to go through another procedure down the road off warfarin. Unnecessary risk when it could get done now. I was surprised at how receptive and understanding they were of the idea.

No lovinox bridge. Just a straight drop in INR and now I'm back dosing up to get back in range quickly. Got as low as 1.3. So far so good. Just one of those extra hassles of warfarin when considering valve choice. Never know what can happen.

Got out of the hospital Saturday morning and was able to sit in the car and watch my sons little league game. He hit a three run home run and a grand slam! Both well over the 190 ft fence. The slam bounced off a car that was parked well beyond the fence! He struck out the side pitching in the 2nd inning too. 12 years old and quite the baseball player.

 

[cldlhd]

Thanks for that post as I'm currently deciding whether to have my BAV repaired, which is what my surgeon wants to do, or get it replaced with a mechanical valve and I hadn't thought too much about warfarin and future medical procedures. I guess it's just one more thing to consider. Congrats on your son's performance, I spent yesterday morning watching my son tryout for the all star team then play a game after but as he's only 7 there's no grand slams, yet.

 

[epstns]

Ahh, the wonders of modern surgical procedures. I remember in the late 1970's, when my sister had her gallbladder removed, she was in the hospital for 10 days, and the "light duty" recovery was 6-8 weeks. Fast forward to last summer, and my daughter had her gallbladder removed, then 2 weeks later she partied the night away at her wedding. We are lucky in so many ways.

Good luck with the recovery. I'm sure you will feel far better than you expected, and soon.

 

[Superman]

INR back up to 2.2 already. Should be out of the woods.

 

[bocco]

Recently I wanted to have a small cyst removed on my back. Far from actual surgery but the doc was sure I needed to go on lovinox for about 4 days before the surgery and stop it 12 hours before. Seems like overkill for a cyst. I decided to just wait.

But it really got me thinking that we don't have much info about how quickly clotting would occur if we just backed off of warfarin for a couple of days? How risky is it to get down to 1.5 and then go back up?

 

[Superman]

The cardiologist who visited me in the hospital seemed to think that the higher volume of blood moving through the aortic position posed less of a risk than the mitral would. Less time for blood to sit still and form clots. I've bridged before for another procedure. Found this one to go much smoother in terms of bruising / bleeding then getting back in range quickly. I may have been exposed to clotting risk briefly, but I think my risk exposure was shorter in duration if that makes sense. My bleeding risk was much higher with bridging.

 

[DebbyA]

It's encouraging to hear you did well with surgery and have your INR back in range. My husband had his gall bladder removed last month, but neglected to have a valve replacement first...

 

[epstns]

It's encouraging to hear you did well with surgery and have your INR back in range. My husband had his gall bladder removed last month, but neglected to have a valve replacement first...

Probably a smart move on his part -- unless he secretly needs a valve.