Oh he’s fine- but just a cautionary tale: doctors always screw up when it comes to telling you about your meds, don’t they?
He was taking a drug called Cumidin that thinned his blood in case he had blood clot problems. He was to decrease dosage at some point but was confused, and continued on, taking double what he should. He got a blood test recently, and the doctor asked him how long he’d been taking rat poison- cumidin in double dosage is a chemical that kills rats.
Always look up pres. drugs in Pill Book and on the internet; always ask tons of questions of your doctors, I suppose.
A friend of mine often complains about someone she works with who had been giving patients the wrong doses of Warfarin. We started calling her “Rat Poison Girl” as shorthand.
She’d be fired if she did that here. There is a case of someone giving 10mg rather than 1mg (or maybe it was 100 mg instead of 10mg), and the patient died.
This sort of thing is why I resist medicine if it isn’t crucial and why I stick with my doctor. I have irregular heart beat on occasion and take a couple of medicines to control it. The Dr. also wanted me to take a blood thinner because strokes are a possible consequence of the heard condition. So I asked if aspirin would do. He said yes so that’s what I use. Aspirin has been around a long time and its possible side effects are probably better known than some of the newer drugs.
The good doctor is also a bit of a wag. I asked him some time ago about the future of such an irregular heart beat. He answered that possible stroke was the main possibility but that people had lived for years with the conditions. So I said, “OK that’s the possible long term effect, what’s the short term.” And he looked at his watch.
Jeez that was scary till I soon realised you were talking about Warfarin. :smack:
(Still amused at the time I came out of the doctor’s place and, reading the label, realised that for some no doubt good reason, he was giving me deadly nightshade. )
You’re supposed to have daily blood tests to monitor your blood clotting situation for the first 2 week when you first start taking Warfarin, then every alternate day, then weekly tests, then when everything is A-OK, the interval is extended further up to 12 weeks. Any change in dose means reeturning to a weekly test. Or at least, that’s how we do it here.
Mrs. Vorlon is on the rat poision since getting blood clots in her lungs for the second time :eek:
Why is it those sleep-deprived folk in the ER have no clue that there is a ~72 hour lag between dose and effect? I have had to teach a couple dozen staff on the care and feeding of coumadin useing folk.
Shouldn’t there be a little more educating on a drug that third of the population is on, and it has as many contra indications as reasons to take it?
I’ve been on warfarin for a year and a half, since developing a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) in my leg. It took a couple of months to get the dosage adjusted just so, but for the last year plus the test has been rock-steady in the range it needs to be. The testing regimin makes it a high-maintenance drug, but it is highly effective, has few side effects, and is dirt cheap. On balance, it’s pretty good stuff.
It’s a summary of research comparing aspirin vs warfarin and how well they work at preventing strokes in people with a common type of irregular heart beat called atrial fibrillation (A. fib. in medical speak). Warfarin comes out better than aspirin.
I’m just saying, doctors put people on it because it works, not because they think it’s funny to have people take rat poison.
When the Mrs. has had to go off the rat poison, the only other choice was chaseing her about with a syringe full of low-molecular weight heprin twice a day.
Yes, I got to stab my wife twice a day for six months. How many husbands would kill for that?
BTW, each syringe was pre-filled, and cost $70 each.
So it comes out better, but does that make a difference to me? If aspirin is good enough, and my doctor thinks it is based on regular checkups, then why switch? It’s important to remember that to me long term is 3 or 4 years.
I have become ill from taking too much dog poison in earlier years when my body seemed to have an uncontrollable craving for the substance. It was easily available on the open market without a prescription and I didn’t have to sign for it or anything. Children can get this.
I will probably return to using it since M&Ms is coming out with the dark version.
)