Before I went in surgery and during my pre-op, they explained I will be having coils with stent because the neck was wide. I guess during the procedure, they decided to do a pipeline stent only which they said was the newest version of this kind. I will get more info once I get my records and see my doctors.
Take care :)
Hi Cris, I just came across this post because I was looking into Plavix, I am due to have surgery in May and have to take Plavix before the operation, they are going to do a test run starting tomorrow, I have to take a blood test take Plavix for 4 days and go back for another blood test to see that it is doing what it is supposed to be doing, it was really interesting to read your post, and I guess I am lucky they are checking before the procedure xxx
It's interesting that they are doing blood work to verify what Plavix is doing. I had a stent and coiling in October 2011 and they did not test me, although I believe other people here have also had a test. I saw that you were coiled once - are they going in for another one in May?
An angiogram in February showed that my stent moved from the original position, though it is still doing its job - the doctor looked back at the MRA I had the day after surgery and found that it moved the night after the surgery, but has not moved since. I was also on Heparin during the surgery and the day after. I was able to stop Plavix some weeks back, thank goodness.
Sherri
Chris, I had a very similiar thing happen to me. Went in for a angio & they found that I needed to have the stent placed. Was on Plavix & 325 mg of aspirin for 2 weeks before the procedure. About 2 weeks after the surgery, i started to have a series of strokes. When I arrived at the hospital I had experienced approx 8 strokes. My local hospital called my surgeion in a different state & city, & they gave me a shot of heprin & flew me to the hospital. Had the docs scrambling to figure out what went wrong. They started giving me a higher dose of plavix & kept me in ICU for 5 days. Finally, the cocktail started to work & I came home. I was in the hospital for a week. I was really concerned that I could have another stroke but the docs felt confident I wouldn't. I was on plavix & aspirin for about 2 more months & then they took the plavix away. Now I'm on aspirin 325mg & will be for the rest of my life. How they explained it to me was that my platelets were eating up the plavix & I litterly had no plavix in my system. Still think about the day it all happened & pray I never have to experience any of that again. Hope all will go well for you in the future.
Aggie
Hi Sheri, I had two aneurysms one burst last February and it is the second one they want to deal with in May, they only coiled the last one but apparently the neck is a little larger on this second one so they want to stent as well, hence the necessity for Plavix. hopefully all will go well I have had a blood test today and taken my first dose today have to take until Thursday and go back for a second blood test then, fingers crossed I am not one of the few it doesn't work for xxx
Thanks all for your replies. Gill, I am glad they are making sure everything will go well by checking on your ability to sustain Plavix. Good luck on your coming procedure. As I mentioned somewhere here, I did get "some" dose of Plavix before my procedure but I think this was only on the basis that I will be coiled and stented. It was only when they went in there that there that they decided to do a pipeline instead and, I might be wrong, as the pipeline (I had 2 inserted) is much more tightly meshed than the usual stent, the dose I had was not enough for this kind. Aggie, a stroke is a serious thing and I was told if you had one in the past, there is a strong possibility of having another. Sherri, yes, let's hope that bloodwork testing becomes mandatory before procedures of this kind are done. Take care all!