Digestive Difficulties with Plavix After Stenting

Hello, all,

I'm a 63-year-old male with four new stents in my heart (placed two months ago). I'm on the standard beta blocker and Plavix protocol since the procedure and was doing fairly well. However, over the last few weeks I've been getting a lot of chest tightness and pressure, burning in throat and stomach, a lumpy feeling in my throat. Sometimes the chest pain becomes sharper and wakes me up in the middle of the night.

All of this is somewhat reminiscent of the GERD/esophagitis attacks I used to have 10 years ago, but much worse. I've been trying to cope by drinking Aloe juice, swigs of Gaviscon when it gets really bad, and as a last resort 1000 mg. of Tylenol. I absolutely need the latter before bed if I hope to get much sleep. The only thing that relieves the pain for long is the Tylenol.

I have a cardiology appointment in a few days to discuss all this with my cardiology PA. But until then, I was wondering a few things:

1. Is Plavix typically very hard on the stomach? Have others had similar experiences?
2. Is there an enteric version of Plavix?
3. Are there other anti-platelet meds that cause less havoc on one's GI system?

Finally, does anyone know about the depression side effects that are listed for Plavix? Anyone experience mood shifts after starting the drug?

Thanks in advance for your comments.

Harry