Do you know anyone that's not taking 81mg of Aspirin, or at least not had their doctor suggest taking it?
Not so long ago Bob was in the emergency room with a bleeding issue. He's one of those guys that eats up a lot of time for hospital staff, he's 83 with a long medical history and takes a lot of medicine. Drives them nuts.
He's a heart patient on both warfarin (blood thinner) and Aspirin 81mg, prescribed by his cardiologist. Oops, a problem. He also sees a hematologist because he has a very low platelet count. Hmmmm Makes no sense to take blood thinners if you have a low platelet count, right? Wrong, it does. Fortunately the cardiologist and hematologist have reached a compromise, something Congress is unable to do these days, and the two of them know what they're doing. The emergency room doctor did not.
a) The emergency room doctor told him to stop taking the aspirin until he saw his geriatrician first of the week.
b) His geriatrician said aspirin lowers the platelet count in older adults so he should stay off the aspirin.
c) The cardiologist was mad because they had meddled in his business changing what he had prescribed for his patient. His opinion was 81 mg of aspirin did not lower the platelet count that much.
d) His hematologist is a peace loving man, wants to get along with everybody so he said "Yes, but......."
Now what's a person to do? I figured it this way. If his heart stops beating it won't matter about his platelet count. He's back on 81 mg of aspirin. The cardiologist is happy.
Of my friends, every one of them is on a therapeutic dose of aspirin. Me, too.
ReplyDeleteI can't take aspirin because I am allergic and it puts me in the ER. That said, I wish I could. My cardiologist would be a lot happier if I could. That is the problem with all the specialists. They often go in different directions on medications.
ReplyDeleteWe both take aspirin 81, but so far we do not have any conditions that would complicate the issue. It hard to know what advice to follow sometimes.
ReplyDeleteExactly. The further ahead we get with the creation of medicine, the further behind we get with treatment. I guess that is the good part about going to a clinic that has all your records on line so you don't get two differing doctors.
ReplyDeleteArt takes the low dose aspirin, but doesn't really want to since it makes it hard to clot.
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