The gastroscopy went fine today, and all and all it took about 10 minutes for the surgeon to take a look. They didn’t find anything other than a hiatal (sp?) hernia (not serious) and a small patch of gastritis (irritation in the lining of the stomach; not serious). They also took a small tissue sample and sent it off to the lab for inspection. She should hear something on Monday if they find anything suspect. The surgeon didn’t think there was any concern.
So now that the scope is over, we’re back to ovarian cancer, possibly peritoneal cancer. The surgeon was going to call Dr. Porubcin’s (oncologist) office today to discuss the gastroscopy. From there hopefully mom will get in next week for her first chemotherapy session.
Her INR was up over 3.0 so they want her to back off of the Coumadin again today. They’ll test her INR tomorrow morning, and if it’s down then she can start back on the Coumadin.
Showing posts with label coumadin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coumadin. Show all posts
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Friday, April 3, 2009
Surgery postponed
The surgery has been postponed. Mom needs to be on the anti-coagulating meds that are being used to dissolve the blood clots for at least three months. For the next four days she will be taking Lovonox by injection and then build up on Coumadin so that her INR level is between 2-3. The INR means International Normalized Ratio and measures something about coagulation. As long as her ratio reaches 2-3 that is the point they want her at before she can start chemotherapy.
Coumadin partially blocks the re-use of vitamin K in your liver. Vitamin K is needed to make clotting factors that help the blood to clot and prevent bleeding. It can help stop harmful clots from forming and keeps clots from getting larger. The Lovonox is taking care of dissolving the clots, and the Coumadin is preventing any more clotting. She needs to watch eating her leafy greens, because eating too much Vitamin K will throw things off, but other wise if she keeps eating like she always has things will be fine. She needs to gain weight and the doc said it was ok for her to drink a protien supplement once a day.
Dr. DeGeest told me on the phone yesterday that he would not be operating with blood clots in the picture now. Thank goodness they looked at the scans again.
Looks as if now she will have to go back to Plan A: Chemotherapy first, surgery second. Dr. Porubcin's office has been keeping in touch with her and will call her on Monday to talk about starting chemo.
Coumadin partially blocks the re-use of vitamin K in your liver. Vitamin K is needed to make clotting factors that help the blood to clot and prevent bleeding. It can help stop harmful clots from forming and keeps clots from getting larger. The Lovonox is taking care of dissolving the clots, and the Coumadin is preventing any more clotting. She needs to watch eating her leafy greens, because eating too much Vitamin K will throw things off, but other wise if she keeps eating like she always has things will be fine. She needs to gain weight and the doc said it was ok for her to drink a protien supplement once a day.
Dr. DeGeest told me on the phone yesterday that he would not be operating with blood clots in the picture now. Thank goodness they looked at the scans again.
Looks as if now she will have to go back to Plan A: Chemotherapy first, surgery second. Dr. Porubcin's office has been keeping in touch with her and will call her on Monday to talk about starting chemo.
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