Pausing & Restarting Medications

Transcript

Important things to discuss with your surgeon would be things like blood thinners, including aspirin, Plavix, or any other blood thinner that you may be on, because you will likely need to hold these before your surgery. This also may be a discussion you need to have with a cardiologist if you are seeing one. Following surgery, it’s also best to discuss with your surgeon when to restart these medications.

Another thing to discuss would be when you may need to start chemotherapy. It’s very important to have this discussion with both your surgeon and your oncologist, as we want to ensure that you’re completely healed before starting any sort of chemotherapy, especially some of the VEGF inhibitors. Holding these medicines will vary between surgeon to surgeon, but oftentimes aspirin and Plavix will need to be held for at least five to seven days. And then with regards to chemotherapy afterwards, it’s often a few weeks before we really plan on restarting or starting these medications.

Key Takeaways

1. Blood thinners like aspirin or Plavix will likely need to be on hold before surgery.

2. Following surgery, it’s also best to discuss with your surgeon when to restart these medications.

3. Another thing to discuss would be when you may need to start chemotherapy.

4. Holding these medicines will vary between surgeon to surgeon, but oftentimes aspirin and Plavix will need to be held for at least five to seven days.

5. With chemotherapy afterwards, it’s often a few weeks before we really plan on restarting or starting these medications.