Coumadin - Side effects?

Posted By Marcita on December 18, 1998 at 11:24:55:







My father is 69 years old.  Two years ago he had a heart valve replacement
of the Aortic Valve. He chose the artifical value as the replacement.
He has been experiencing (what the doctors believe at this point
in time) a minute' internal hemorrhage that has caused him to be
hospitalized on three occassions this year.  However, they have no medical
evidence to base their theory on. Each time he has been hospitalized, he has
been given anywhere from 3 to 7 pints of blood.  At this time, the source of the blood
loss has not been located, even though he has had extensive tests to try to locate.
He has been experienceing shortness of breath, pains in his chest during any
exercise (even walking around in the house),abdominal pains, and confusion
at times.
He is currently taking 5mg of Coumadin five days and 4mg of Coumadin two days
a week.
Has other coumadin patients been experiencing these same complications?  Is there
any information that you can offer to us to help solve this problem?