Nosebleeds

Pat6177

DH has had nosebleeds over the summer and into the fall. Not that many but has now had 2 this week. He has been on Donepezil for 2 years now. I see on drugs.com that nosebleeds (epistaxis) is an uncommon side effect. Has anyone else’s PWD had problems with nosebleeds?

Ed1937

My wife didn't have problems like that, but I've had them since I was a kid. I had them often, but now that I'm older, they are rare, but I will still sometimes have one. Never knew what caused them, but for me they were not a serious issue, even though there seemed to be a lot of blood. For me, it was not side effects because I was not on medications.

Ed1937

Pat, you have not received any other replies. I've read literally thousands of posts here, and I don't ever remember seeing anyone that was concerned with nosebleeds.

If I'm not mistaken, Donepezil is used for cognition. And it may help for a while or it may not. My guess is that you'd say you don't know if it helps or not. Unless you are pretty sure it is helping, it might be best to ask the doctor if he could quit taking it for a while. At least until you can see if it is causing the nosebleeds. Just s thought.

Pat6177

Ed, thanks for your comments. I’m guessing the lack of responses is an indication that no one else is having this issue. DH is seeing a new dementia specialist is a few weeks and it will be one of the things I’ll bring up. DH is on both Donepezil and memantine. I did feel that the Donepezil did help initially with following conversations but now he avoids socializing so it’s hard to tell. DH has had occasional nosebleeds all his life but only maybe one or two a year. So having several this year and 2 in 1 week got my attention. And I have learned from reading this forum that there are some odd symptoms related to dementia and the related meds so I figured it didn’t hurt to ask!

JJ401

DH has had occasional nosebleeds over the years, but this week he has had slight bleeds two days in a row. I hadn’t considered medication involvement and I really don’t think that’s it. I have chalked it up to the drier air now that the heat is on and the frequent nose blowing due to geriatric rhinitis.

saltom

My DH has had nosebleeds for many years. They usually come on first thing in the morning when he gets up and can last up to 30 minutes. It is always in the right nostril, He had a CPAP and now a BiPAP, and I think using the humidifier on the machines helps somewhat. The doctor also said to swab inside his nostrils with Vaseline twice a day. So far this also seems to be working as he has not had a heavy bleed in a long time even when he was on a low dose of Pradaxa which for other reasons he has stopped taking. Hope this information helps.