DVT - Living With Deep Vein Thrombosis

I have noticed that whenever I forget to take coumadin that I get phantom pains in my leg that the blood clot happened in. Sometimes I get headaches also. I wonder if this has to do with my blood getting thicker???

I have enquired with my doctor about the consequences if I stop taking it and she has told me that it stays in your system for at least three days even though your blood level will gradually get thicker over that time. She smiled and told me that I would feel it if I stopped taking it...

Another nurse told me that one of her patients stopped taking coumadin and kept ending up in the intensive care unit with a heparin bag next to his bed.

These could all be scare tactics to make the drug company who makes coumadin, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, lots of money. I am very weary of how much influence drug companies have and am always weary of the gift bags I see the drug representatives bring into my doctors office but a little rat poison has never killed anyone right?

My father who had suffered a blood clot that almost killed him, had a doctor that was vehement about him not staying on Bristol-Myers Squibb Companys wonder drug.

All I know is that I can definitely feel some type of twinges of pain in the leg that had the blood clot when I forget to take my coumadin. It usually takes 4 hours but I do feel it.