Blood clots

[sassy]

A co-worker's mother-in-law was dx in April with a 4 inch tumor and 22 positive nodes. She had A/C (I think) and Taxol. Following this she was having difficulty breathing, had a CT, and blood clots in her lungs and legs were discovered.

She is home from the hospital after having heparin and now on Coumidan(sp).

Both her surgeon and radiologist are hesitant to continue due to the blood clots.

Does anyone have any experience or knowledge/advice you could share?

Thanks in advance.

[flynny]

I hope I can help. My mother had something very similar to what you are saying. She had double PE's in either lung and they gave her heparin in the hospital and then switched her to Lovenox shots (2 x/day). If I remember correctly the doctors said that because she previously had chemo (or something like that) she needed to have Lovenox shots NOT coumadin. You may just want to let her know that. Also on Dec 6, 2007 my mother had edema of the brain and had a shunt placed and her ommaya port taken out. She was taken off of the Lovenox for the duration of her ICU stay plus oncology floor stay. After being off the Lovenox for approximately 9 days or so, they put her back on and then not even a week later she started having major breathing problems and couldn't stop coughing (12/20), she then had a dvt and had an embolectomy at 2:30AM. It was a nightmare and the scariest thing WE have EVER been through. Not sure if this helps, but just to let you know what we went through.

[sassy]

Thank you Sarah.

I can understand the surgeon's hesitation at this point, but do you have any idea why the radiologist would be hesitant to start treatment. Are blood clots or coumidin a problem during radiation?

[flynny]

I'm not sure about that one. Maybe she is just being over cautious? It makes your blood thinner, so maybe that does interfere with the radition because it makes your skin tighter? I'm just throwing it out there. Hopefully someone else can shed some light on this one.