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Two recent personal aspirin anecdotes.

Late 2011, I contracted acute idiopathic pericarditis. The medication was fairly simple - a ton of aspirin. 4x 650mg Aspirin daily, to be precise, along with colchicine. It healed after a couple of months.

This month, I recently had a cardiac catheterization in my right radial artery (wrist) - my (now healed, but thickened) pericardium likely was constricting my heart. The wrist pain got worse during the healing process - apparently my whole forearm was clotted. 2x 650mg aspirin was the recommendation due to both the blood thinning as well as the anti-inflammatory nature. Pain became manageable the next day, and my arm seems to be healing. Not clear if I've recovered my radial artery yet, though.

I was an Ibuprofen fan for a long time, but Aspirin for me seems to have been what the doctors keep recommending, and has been indispensable these past 4 months. No stomach bleeding, as they usually prescribe Pantoprazole along with it to reduce acid buildup.



Aspirin is an irreversible ('suicide') platelet inhibitor, whereas ibuprofen is reversible. Basically, you don't want those platelets in that thrombus to ever become active again.




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