A lot of lupies, including me, take fish oil as part of our drug cocktail. I don't take quite as much as my rheumatologist wants, because if I throw up if I take the eight to ten capsules a day he recommends.
But I do take six 1000mg capsules each day.
Fish oil is a blood thinner.
Usually, I don't even think about it. After all, there are so many side effects of the things I take, I wouldn't be able to think of anything else, if I kept thinking about all the things my drugs could do to me.
This morning, I cut my thumb on a broken glass in the kitchen sink.
I dripped blood as I walked across the kitchen to the drawer with the first-aid kit, and found a sticky dressing to apply. The pad of the dressing soaked up immediately, but didn't leak through the other side, so I was able to do a fair clean up and look a little less like Jack the Ripper.
I have a problem with sticky dressings. Even though I used the ones for sensitive skin, if they're left on too long, they tend to take chunks of skin with them when they're removed.
So a couple of hours later, when I was in the bathroom washing my hands, I decided I wasn't risking having the, now wet, dressing on any longer, and I took it off. The tiny cut was still bleeding.
With my non-cut hand cupped under the cut one to catch the blood, I dashed (OK, limped as quickly as I could) back up the hall, tripping on two strategically-placed cats on the way to the first-aid drawer again.
So the moral of the story lovely lupies is this, when a medical-type person with a needle or scalpel or other sharp implement asks you if you're on blood thinners - remember that includes fish oil. (Oh, and take a look at what's in the sink before you put your hands in there.)
