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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Intestinal Obstruction, Constipation, High Platelet Level. Due To Anticoagulants?

Greetings! My grandmother who s 84 y/o is in the hospital. She was admitted 40 days ago due to an intestinal obstruction. They removed some adherence from a previous cholecystectomy . She received her 2nd blood transfusion a few weeks ago and developed pneumonia . She was cured from pneumonia and then she developed another pneumonia again, that required to use a C-PAP and nasal O2 cannula . She has a femoral central line catheter and developed a DVT. She received Coumadin and later Lovenox (due to blood in her urine - she has a folly catheter) but the clot didn t resolved so they placed a vena cava filter yesterday. She still has extreme constipation and today the doctor told me her platelets level were 43k. He said he doesn t believe is due to anticoagulants because they discontinued them 3 days ago. What could cause this sudden and extreme lowering in her platelets levels? Thanks for your help!
posted on Mon, 5 Nov 2012
Twitter Wed, 17 Jul 2013 Answered on
Twitter Wed, 17 Jul 2013 Last reviewed on
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Hematologist,  's  Response
Hi
Your grandmother has had severe infections and recent history of receiving heparin, which has now been discontinued. Both or either of them could have caused low platelet counts(43000 is low count). Your doctor, i am sure is addressing both these issues. The platelet counts will take some time to recover. Dont worry.
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Intestinal Obstruction, Constipation, High Platelet Level. Due To Anticoagulants?

Hi Your grandmother has had severe infections and recent history of receiving heparin, which has now been discontinued. Both or either of them could have caused low platelet counts(43000 is low count). Your doctor, i am sure is addressing both these issues. The platelet counts will take some time to recover. Dont worry.