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Dear Barb, That is really strange. I hope someone with more knowledge of the body that I have can come up with an explanation. Your painful experience may discover something. I had a 10 hour back fusion a few years ago and needed 8 units of blood. It was a first for the surgeon and he couldn't understand it. At least your doctor was smart enough to tell you to stop taking vitamin supplements such as vitamin E, Gingko Biloba and Coenzyme CQ10 which, needless to say, I also had been taking. Good luck with your recovery. nina Barb_MSN wrote: > Dear List-family - especially those who're members of the "Hole in > the Head Gang," and those who take non-prescription, > over-the-counter vitamins and supplements...... > > During last week's major plastic surgery I had what the surgeon > referred to as an "potentially dangerous anomaly," that caused > what had been planned as being a 5 hour surgery to take 10 hours. > It could have been caused by my 10/94 unilateral pallidotomy > and/or it could have been caused by the accumulative effects of > the non-prescription, over-the-counter vitamins and supplements I > took daily up to two weeks prior to the surgery, at which time > per the doctor's orders, I ceased taking all but the PD-related > drugs, > > The reason my doctor told be to stop taking the vitamins and > supplements, including vitamin E, Gingko Biloba, Coenzyme CQ10, > and the Centrum Silver multivitamins was because it's definitely > known that vitamin E, and Gingko-related supplements cause blood > to slow down in coagulating, thus potentially causing excessive > blood loss during surgery. > > And THAT is exactly what happened to me - with an odd twist to the > experience. > > It appears that ONLY on the RIGHT side of my body (and my > pallidotomy was performed on the LEFT side of my brain to help the > right side of my body) was there excessive bleeding accompanied by > very slow clotting. > > According to the surgeon it seemed to him like the right side and > the left side were each having totally different surgical > experiences! > > This evening I spoke with Tony Schoonenberg, Dr. Iacono's > assistant in order to discuss this anomaly and find out if such a > thing might in some way may be related to having had a unilateral > pallidotomy, however, Tony hadn't ever heard of that in relation > to the neurosurgery. > > This bleeding p;problem MAY be just limited to my own surgical > experience and can be a one-time-only event, however, I felt it > should be mentioned here on the List because so many of our List > members have had neurosurgery and others are thinking about having > surgery. > > Forewarned is forearmed.... > > Barb Mallut > barb_msn@email,msn.com