Question:
My grandfather, 85 yro, allegedly had a stroke 3 months ago. A CT scanrevealed nothing, but his GP prescribed him Coumadin anyways. He nowexperiences "heaviness" in his left arm, and finds tasks such as shaving hisfacial hair difficult so his GP increased his Coumadin dosage. The GP alsobelieves my grandfather is experiencing early AD and prescribed a drug. Ithought the drug was Rapidine for some reason, but it appears I am wrong soI will have to call my Aunt tomorrow.

First of all, I believe my grandfather needs to see a Neurologist and nothis GP about his symptoms/stroke/dementia. Secondly, and y'alls advice isappreciated here, I believe my grandfather should have a fMRI, SPECT or PETscan done to evaluate blood/oxygen/etc. flow in his brain. Am I wrong?What other tests should he have done? The reason I would like for him tohave a functional scan done is because I am wondering if my grandfathercould have vascular dementia or something else other than AD, and ifCoumadin could make his symptoms worse. If he is having a hemorrhagicstroke or series of mini-strokes/seizures (guess an EEG couldn't hurt), Idon't know if increasing Coumadin is appropriate.

Can anyone give me some ideas???

Answer: dont know much about the tests you asked about -and i do know that pet scan 'research' has been cited bybiological psychiatrists as 'proof' that distress is congenital whereasmany neurologists consider their claims ludicrous -- but i do know abit about coumadin.

firstly i call it by its real/nontrade name. warfarin. exactly the samechemical you can buy in a hardward store ---for killing rats. itinhibits vitamin k production (vitamin k is clotting factor and w/o itwhen you bleed you keep bleeding) and since rats lead a sort of lifewhereby you get cuts and wounds then they bleed to death. a drugcompany somehow came up with the genius idea that if you give vitamin kto people who have had blood clots in their brains (strokes) then maybethey wont have another. this was an experimental idea when my mothergot put on it in the nineties and i dont think the data is much betternow

and there are huge problems with stopping your vk production. itshortened ma's life considerably since she had all thecontraindications -- ulcers heavy drinking other drugs hard to managept tendency to fall -- that can lead to bleeding. almost died ofundiagnosed anemia when her drinking activated her ulcer. no one shouldtake coumadin in the absence of a confirmation of the sort of strokethat it supposedly inhibits having already occurred.

a neurologist sounds like a good idea -- altho my moms was useless,prescribing the coumadin to someone who should not have had it andtelling her she could have one drink a day. the gp sounds like anovermedicating moron