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What Causes Bruising Throughout The Body, Sore Kidney And Frequent Urination?
Question: I have had a stroke in 2008 They went in and cleaned all the plaque from my arteries in my neck on both sides. I have a stent on my left side. The right has quit working all together. I have been on Plavix since the surgery. I know all about easy bruising but or the last few days I have bruise's on every part of my body!! My kidney seem to be more sore and I am urinating a good bit! I feel like someone has beat me with a board!! The bruises are really blackish! I ended up with mersa after all of my ailments and really don't know if that could be related or not!! It hurts just to press on skin and I am sore all over???
Brief Answer:
Read below.
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
Medication like Plavix as blood thinners do raise the concern of causing bleeding complications. Ecchymoses, bleeding under the skin is such a potential bleeding which may explain your skin manifestations.
However since you describe no such phenomenon for many years other causes which may affect coagulation as well must be considered. For that some simple blood tests must be done to evaluate coagulation such as complete blood count, INR and aPTT. They may show other causes such as blood tumors, liver damage. In that case Plavix must be interrupted and the cause be addressed. Also kidney function test and urine analysis are necessary to evaluate the possibility of kidney infection.
If tests reveal no such abnormalities and there are no hemorrhages at other sites other than the skin, then medication must be continued as risk of stroke is takes precedence over such skin phenomena which are usually harmless. One change which may be tried is to switch from Clopidogrel (Plavix) to low dose Aspirin which has similar efficacy (but it is possible for the bruises to manifest with Aspirin as well, the risk is there).
As for MRSA it can at times manifest with hemorrhagic complications but that is usually in much more severely affected patients with fever, so I do not think that to be your case.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Read below.
Detailed Answer:
I read your question carefully and I understand your concern.
Medication like Plavix as blood thinners do raise the concern of causing bleeding complications. Ecchymoses, bleeding under the skin is such a potential bleeding which may explain your skin manifestations.
However since you describe no such phenomenon for many years other causes which may affect coagulation as well must be considered. For that some simple blood tests must be done to evaluate coagulation such as complete blood count, INR and aPTT. They may show other causes such as blood tumors, liver damage. In that case Plavix must be interrupted and the cause be addressed. Also kidney function test and urine analysis are necessary to evaluate the possibility of kidney infection.
If tests reveal no such abnormalities and there are no hemorrhages at other sites other than the skin, then medication must be continued as risk of stroke is takes precedence over such skin phenomena which are usually harmless. One change which may be tried is to switch from Clopidogrel (Plavix) to low dose Aspirin which has similar efficacy (but it is possible for the bruises to manifest with Aspirin as well, the risk is there).
As for MRSA it can at times manifest with hemorrhagic complications but that is usually in much more severely affected patients with fever, so I do not think that to be your case.
I remain at your disposal for other questions.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
Answered by
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