[Moonman62]

Thanks for the info. During the last episode, my mom passed out, and the paramedics took her to the hospital. They diagnosed her as having low blood pressure due to her blood pressure medications. They checked her in and SOP was to put her on additional blood thinners (already on aspirin and Plavix). She later started throwing up buckets of blood. If she didn’t have a roommate to call the nurses she would have died. It turns out she had a tear in her stomach, and that’s what was causing her to have low blood pressure and pass out.

[Spunky]

My husband had an artificial Aortic Valve put in almost 18 yrs ago. Because it was an artificial valve they put him on Coumadin. They did have to check his blood every two weeks because his Pro-Time always changed. There were a few times when they would let it go a month. He did have a bleed through in his brain in 2001. Last year they saw that the valve was closing off due to scar tissue, so he had another Aortic Valve put in. This time it was the pig valve. He no longer has to be on Coumadin, but he is on a baby asperin (85 mg) a day.

I know of several people who are on Asperin and Plavix and they never check their blood for clotting. I don't know how much asperin they had her on, but it sounds to me like it was the asperin that ate through her stomach.