Patient Discusses Living With Fears of a Life-threatening Bleeding Event While Taking Anticoagulants

Pharmacy Times® interviewed Caroline Bernal-Silva, a patient spokesperson for the National Blood Clot Alliance, on a recent survey regarding patients’ fears of a life-threatening bleeding event while taking anticoagulant medications.

The discussion included whether the results of the survey accurately represent Bernal-Silva’s own experience as a patient who has taken anticoagulant medications for 11 years, how taking anticoagulant medications has affected her life, and whether her health care team has advised her against certain activities that have made it necessary to change her lifestyle.

Bernal-Silva explained that she has had some specific fears and concerns due to taking anticoagulants that caused her to change her lifestyle to adapt. She said, “I think the thing that always resonates when I talk to people about taking anticoagulation is it really is such a granular thing when it comes to changing your lifestyle and the concerns and fears you have. I’ve moved apartments because I couldn't take the subway anymore because I had too much anxiety about if I got stuck would I be able to get to a hospital if something happened. Where I live now is only 30 minutes away from a medical team that took me 11 years to piece together.”

Bernal-Silva also discussed how her fears and concerns have changed over time, whether her fears and concerns ever brought her to consider going off the medication for any period of time, what her hopes for the future in regard to anticoagulant medications are, and whether there is anything she would like pharmacists to know when treating others with anticoagulant medications.