Something new.

[Sean]

Hi,

I have the following symptoms and I'd like to know if they are related to Coumadin use. I've been on Coumadin 4+ years (aeortic valve replacement)and this is a first. I've had abdominal discomfort and bloody diarrhea for about 2 weeks. The blood in the stool isn't much, but is disturbing nontheless. Aside from these symptoms, I feel fine. My appetite seems to be normal, my INR is 3.3, last checked 2 days ago. I check it every couple of weeks with ProTime. I looked up these symptoms online and Crohn disease came up as a candidate, but I'd like to get some opinions/experiences before rushing to a doctor for tests. Thanks. Peace.

 

[Ross]

I really doubt it. Anytime you have bleeding like that, get it checked. This should not be.

 

[Guest]

Sean, many people owe their lives to warfarin causing something like this. Please don't think that I am saying that it is cancer, but it could be. Warfarin often makes something bleed earlier than it would otherwise. If you get it checked and it is a small polyp that can be cut out, you may have caused yourself a major cancer surgery a few years down the road. Please do report this to your doctor.

I probably owe my life to somebody insisting that I have something done. I had this brown spot on my head and my doctor thought it was just a freckle. A nurse practitioner friend of mine told me to get something done about it. I said yeah yeah. Three months later I saw her again and she said that thing isn't getting any better. Then my wife said that it looked worse. So I saw my doc in the hall at work and said that everybody was bugging me about the spot. He said to come to the office in an hour and he would cut it out. Sure enough - melanoma. But luckily it was intact and had not started to spread. So far I have survived three diferent kinds of cancer. Never admitted this to anybody before just now.