Oh, fuck yes.
Please understand that coumadin (warfarin) is not a fun drug. It promotes bleeding and bruising, it interacts in interesting and practically unpredictable ways with other drugs (primarily through disturbances of protein binding in the serum), and it requires regular monitoring (which means regular blood draws to monitor prothrombin time and/or INR). The side effect profile is...notorious. You have to take it for a long time in the setting of venous thromboembolism, but unless you have a procoagulopathy, recurrent dvt, atrial fib or other well-defined underlying pathology mandating indefinite anticoagulation, a categorical decision that you'll be on it forever seems premature, to put it as politely as I can. (Even in such conditions, the NNT is high and the harm-benefit ratio is not super-groovy.) The therapy needs to be re-evaluated in 3-6 months, depending on your response to treatment, the suspected etiology of your thrombosis, and the results of other studies.
See readings below disclaimer. Your doc has no business being categorical at this stage, unless she know something about your case I don't. Warfarin is a therapy, not a way of life.
For fuck's sake, we're talking about rat poison here.
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This post is intended for ejumacational and infotainment purposes only, and does not represent medical advice for any particular patient, disease, disorder, symptom or condition. It does not purport to represent the opinion of Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center, or any affiliated on nonaffiliated organization, institution, college, club, movement or militia. Rat poison should not be substituted for coumadin for economical or any other reasons, unless your insurance company sez so, in which case you're fucked. No doctor-patient relationship obtains. See your physician. Don't hit your head. Go to coumadin clinic. But remember that I'm not a real doctor. So don't get any big ideas. Rats can make great pets for the asocial, senile and stupid, unless you give them coumadin, in which case they just lay there.
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http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article....ticleid=201376
http://link.springer.com/article/10....0511790#page-1
http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/arti...ticleid=215644
http://www.gefaesse.at/download/7_ak...m_2011_BMJ.pdf
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056...99506223322501