To: KLP who wrote (125469 ) 11/24/2006 12:47:23 PM From: Naomi Read Replies (3) | Respond to Karen, my symptoms were a very black tar like diarrhea starting on the 10th of November. We had gone to a friend's house to celebrate Veterans Day as all invited were former Marines. I didn't feel super that afternoon but got dressed and went with my husband. He was concerned about me so suggested we leave the party early and we did. Got to our car and got in and before I could shut the car door started throwing up a total of three times. Felt a little better after but did not know that at the same time I was throwing up I was having involuntary diarrhea. We got home and I felt my pant leg and it seemed damp, so went up to master bath and started taking my clothes off and to my shock the diarrhea was black as tar and something I had never seen before. Spent the night sitting on the throne about every two hours and in early morning noticed when I got out of bed to go to the bathroom, I was looking through black spots that seemed to cover both my eyes and I could not see. I did not lose consciousness, but I had to lean against the wall or a chair in our bedroom for a minute for it to subside so I could get back to our bed. As Saturday morning came around my husband called a Doctor friend of ours to ask what this could be and he told him I was having internal bleeding and get me to the hospital ER as fast as he could to have blood work done to find out what was causing it and try to find out how much blood I had lost. I also started having difficulty getting my breath when I got up. My husband decided to call 911 as he thought that would be the quickest way to get me to the ER. They did an endoscopy on me and found out I was bleeding from the organ just above my small intestines and told us they would have to cauterize it and did. It took until Monday night for me to pass all the black fecal matter and they put me on Nexium and took me off Plavix and baby aspirin. The week before I had been in the hospital because I had had a kidney imaging and it turned out I was allergic to the iodine dye they used. While in that time they started me on Prednisone and Prednisone, plus Plavix and baby aspirin I was told could only lead to hemorrhaging which I did. They gave me two blood transfusiions and kept taking blood tests and on Monday I was told I might be able to go home on Tuesday. Tuesday my doctor came in and told me my blood count had dropped from 9.5 to 8.5 and he wanted to give me two more blood transfusions to bring it up more and possibly I could go home on Wednesday. With the extra two transfusions, my blood count went up to 12 and he was satisfied so I got to come home Wednesday afternoon of last week. I have felt so much better than I have for a long time and I had been asking my neurologist to take me off of Plavix for almost two years as it was affecting my appetite and my sense of taste and I was never hungry at all. That bothered me a great deal. I am eating well now and have developed my appetite back and enjoying all the food I have eaten since then. I have always been thin, but when I lost down to 93 pounds last May it concerned me as that was what I weighed in high school and after I had my children my weight had stayed around 98 to a 100 pounds. My Doctor disagreed and told me to continue taking the Plavix and baby aspirin as it would keep me well. That just did not happen in my case.
