Holy shit. Freaking blood thinners.

[LuckyCharms]

I'm on two different ones.

Every time a spec of dust lands on me, I feel like the cops are going to show up and wrap my house with that "Crime Scene" tape.

[Old Crank]

1. That doesn't sound like fun.

Good luck and I hope things stabilize for you.

[LuckyCharms]

2. Thank you, it's more of an annoyance than anything else.

I was sitting here at my desktop computer, and saw blood splatting onto the hardwood floor.

I'm constantly getting minor cuts and scratches on my arms and hands that I don't even know are there until they decide to start bleeding.

[Turbineguy]

3. My Doctor recommended

I stay out of car wrecks.

[LuckyCharms]

8. Seems like good advice.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

4. I am on blood thinners.

And I always look as if someone in my life is beating me constantly

I am so tired of the bruises and blood marks (don't know a better word to describe them). I have always bruised easily, but this is ridiculous. A relatively soft tap on my arm results in a bruise. If I bump my leg on something I have a bruise. Worse yet, is that they take a VERY long time to go away. Last week I crashed my forhead on a wooden arm of my sofa. Cut my head, (thank you blood thinners) but immediately put ice on the wound, and didn't have a lot of swelling, which was nice. But I got a bruise, which looks like an extra eyebrow above the one already there. So long as I have that bruise -- and it will probably be there at least another week -- I won't be able to get my hair trimmed. Sigh. I have my hair done at a nearby Great Clips, and I'm happy with how they cut my hair. But I don't want to complicate their lives with my bruising.

[LuckyCharms]

7. I am sorry to hear this, and I can relate to every thing you have typed here.

I also consistently look like someone beat me up. I do a lot of physical work, so I either cut myself or bang something up on a daily basis.

One thing that concerned me about your post is the following: When you spoke about hitting your head.

Not to worry, because you could be in a totally different medical situation than me, and take different blood thinners than I do. But my primary care kind of read me the riot act when she put me on the second blood thinner. Something to the effect of "I know how you are. If you hit your head, no matter how minor you think it is, get yourself to the ER immediately, because you are at risk for a brain bleed if you hit your head". I'm glad you're OK after hitting your head on the sofa arm.

I tend to fall once in awhile because I'm always in a hurry and don't pay attention, so whenever I do fall, My arms instinctively wrap around my head on the way down in order to protect it.

So I stand with you in solidarity, my fellow blood thinner warrior! Take care of yourself!

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. Thank you for your concern,

but the hit to my head wasn't that bad. I misjudged how close I was to the couch, and simply whacked my head. Had I gone to the ER they'd have laughed me out of there, really.

But I am heartily sick of being covered in bruises all the time.

[Jeebo]

5. I had a mild stroke in 2016.

My doctor put me on aspirins. One 325mg Bayer tablet per day, over-the-counter. Are there stronger blood thinners than that? I guess you're on them.

-- Ron

[LuckyCharms]

6. Yes, I had a stroke in April of this year.

Prior to that, I had a piece of plaque that was lodged in my retina for a few years. When that was discovered, I was put on baby aspirin (81 mg) and a blood thinner called Brilinta.

After I had the stroke, they discontinued the baby aspirin, but added another blood thinner, Xarelto.

I guess the two blood thinners have different mechanisms of action. I think the Brilinta somehow works on the platelets, and the Xarelto works in a different manner.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. Oh, yes, there are presciption blood thinners that are much, much stronger

than the aspirin.

All of my life I've bruised easily, and now it's vastly worse.

I'm honestly not 100% convinced I need them, but I do follow doctor's orders.

[DFW]

9. After my mild heart attack in 2011, I was put on Plavix for a year

I started to bleed if I came within three feet of a pair of scissors.

[LuckyCharms]

10. Amazing, isn't it?

It really does feel that way. It's almost like you can will yourself to start bleeding.

I hope you are doing well now, DFW. Sounds like you are!

[DFW]

11. My last serious cardiac incident was that one

It was in 2011. Of course, I could have something horrible happen to me at any second, but I've been living with that since I was first diagnosed in 2004. I go for regular checkups and stress tests every six months. My dad's parents both died of heart attacks before they were 70, but both were heavy smokers. By the time his mom died in 1966, he was asking around about whether smoking was really as bad as some of the reports leaking out indicated it was, and the answer was that it was even worse than the first reports indicated. He stopped cold turkey from one day to the next. My mom had high cholesterol, and had a stroke when she was 75. She was also diagnosed with breast cancer that year, but another stroke killed her while she was in the middle of chemo for her cancer.

I have never smoked, and while I am not religiously adherent to the prescribed diet, I don't do red meat, butter, alcohol, or some of the worse stuff heart patients are supposed to stay away from. Seeing as how both my parents and all their siblings had cancer, I figure that's what will get me sooner or later, anyway. I'm in no rush. Out of four grandparents, two died before they were 70, one before she was 80, and then there was my mom's dad who made it 102. So, genetically, I seem to have a one in four chance of making it past 80. Not the best of odds, but you play the hand fate dealt you, and that's mine.

[highplainsdem]

12. Sorry to hear that, and please be careful. My mom was on blood thinners for nearly 30

years because of a-fib, and always had to be careful, including with diet since foods can affect some blood thinners. Some of my relatives are on them, too. Atrial fibrillation runs in the family (several with a-fib among my aunts and siblings). I don't have it, but I'm the one who discovered health food stores and started taking megadoses of vitamins when I was 20,

[Prairie_Seagull]

15. Had a couple of strokes in Sept last year and

in Apr. 2022 I was put on the blood thinner Clopidogrel aka Plavix. "that made all the difference". Night and day, Hit the light switch. Choose your metaphor. Not having bleeding problems at all that I know of. FYI (not a spring chicken)