Should have had stiches.

[Gary Miller]

Well four days ago I was in the garage working on my old truck repairing some rusted panels on the floor boards. The cut off saw went zing and my finger some how got in the way. Boy leather gloves are no match for a good cut off saw. Anyway it caught my right index finger right at the first joint and went in pretty deep. My first thought was, my INR was 2.7 yesterday, maybe it wont be too bad. I went to the house, washed it out, and applied some of that wound seal stuff and a gauze wrap good and snug. I was going to head to the ER when I thought I would watch it for a while. It seeped a little for about an hour than stopped. Today I removed the bandage and it still looked deep but was healing all ready. I think 4 stiches would have closed it up better but it would have been very annoying right at that joint. My question is if that bleeding can be stopped relatively easy, are the sinus polyps that I need to have removed so much harder to stop bleeding or am I comparing apples to bananas? I am going to my ENT doc today and will show him my finger to get his take on it.

 

[clay_from_nj]

I personally think the bleeding caused by wafarin (in range) is sometimes greatly exaggerated. This is backed up by the vast anecdotal evidence right on these very forums.

 

[dick0236]

I agree with clay_from_nj that the expectation of serious bleeding is overblown and believe that the need to hold warfarin depends on the doctor or dentist doing the procedure. BTW, when I recently cut my hand I thought it was a 4 or 5 stitch wound.....but it took fourteen. I'd let my doc look at it and are you up to date with your Tetanus shot.

 

[river-wear]

Good point about the tetanus shot! As for your sinuses, I think there are a lot more blood vessels in there than in your hand. The increased time to clot could be a pretty big challenge. I knew someone who had that done - without warfarin - and she figured there was a yard or more "stuff" up there to pack her sinuses. Sounds like it's kind of big deal even for regular folks.

 

[T in YVR]

Not sure if you saw my other post under post surgery, but I fell and was concussed and also broke a blood vessel in my sinus. It was too far up for them to cauterize it. Well, I am at day 17 and I still have blood coming out my nose/mouth. It stopped for a couple days but has come back a bit. It just takes a slight sniff or very mild nose blow to re-aggregate it. If it does not stop soon they are sending me to an ENT to see what can be done. From my experience it can be bad, but I'm not sure how bad this would have been if I was not on warfarin. My INR is 2.4 right now. I have stopped my daily lose dose aspirin but have maintained maintained my warfarin.
T