Monday, August 25, 2008
And I'm back to tear it up, Haters, start your engines
current mood: PISSED
Okay, I'm going to get a little technical on you here.
So, I went to get my blood tested today. I do this often as my blood needs to be regulated very closely while I'm on Coumadin (my super-power anticoagulant). My INR level (International Normalised Ratio) needs to be between a 2.0 and 3.0, which is essentially the speed that my blood clots at (the higher the number, the slower my blood clots). When I started on Coumadin, I couldn't seem to get below a 3.0, which isn't horrible, but it increases my risk of bleeding out (i.e. bleeding into the brain). So we decreased my daily dose from 5 mg to 4 mg. And since then, my INR has been steadily declining. 4 weeks ago it was a 2.9. 2 weeks ago it was a 2.0. When it hit 2.0, both me and my dad thought that my daily dosage should be increased. My doctor left it at 4 mg a day and told me to come back in 2 weeks. And I knew that I would come back and that it would be below 2.0. I was right. I went in today and my INR was 1.7. And they didn't change my dose!! They kept me at 4 mg a day! ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME??? When INR goes below 2.0, it dramatically increases my risk of developing clots again. Oh, and did I mention I have 7 hours worth of flying to do on Friday? (long flights are a main cause of blood clots, I have been instructed to get up and walk around the plane at least once an hour to maintain blood flow).
So, I called my dad as soon as I walked out of there. He was furious and declared it 'unacceptable'. He is a doctor who has been doing this for 30 years, so I trust him implicitly (especially since he diagnosed me with a pulmonary embolism 3 days before I ended up in the ER). He upped my daily dose to 5 mg and hopefully that will take effect soon enough that I don't die while flying to Seattle on Friday.
Current mood: once I get over my frustration with my incompetent doctors, ECSTATIC
1. All of my genetic testing has come back negative, which means that my clotting isn't a chronic problem and I will be able to get off Coumadin sooner
2. While talking to my dad, he suggested that on Saturday, that him and I drive to my brother's house, which is only an hour and a half away from my dad. I ecstatically agreed, since my brother and his wife recently had their 4th child and I haven't had a chance to meet the little tyke yet. I called my sister-in-law to make sure it was ok that my dad and I come calling on Saturday, and learned that all of my family that lives in my hometown were ALSO coming to visit that weekend. And so, I will get to spend Saturday with my ENTIRE immediate family. My mom. My dad. My sister. My two brothers. And my 9 (yes 9!) nieces and nephews. I am ridiculously excited.
3. We have been babysitting 2 cats for a month now. At first I was ridiculously excited. I am a MAD animal lover and my life feels incomplete without a pet. Both cats are about a year old, so they have ridiculous amounts of energy and are very needy cats. After a few weeks with them, their welcome began to wear thin. One of them always sleeps with me at night. She wakes me up by taking a swipe at my face (which I could not get to stop bleeding, thanks coumadin!) and this morning by digging a claw into the bottom of my foot. Most of the time, I kick her feline ass out, especially cause she starts to get really vocal about needing attention around 6:30 in the morning, but I like having something curled up to me, so sometimes I let her stay. However, they are leaving tomorrow.
No more living room covered in litter.
No more cat hair everywhere.
No more bodies CONSTANTLY underfoot.
No more waking up in the middle of the night to my incredibly expensive makeup brush collection being strewn about my room.
4. Okay, so the weight loss thing was sidelined a little during my initial recovery. Somehow I managed to maintain the weight that I had hit and not gained anything back, even though I wasn't working out at all and not exactly staying on points. I went back into working out with a vengeance mode last week and lost 2 more pounds as of this morning. Total weight loss to date- 35 pounds.
Today's Title from: Everything I am by Kanye West
Okay, I'm going to get a little technical on you here.
So, I went to get my blood tested today. I do this often as my blood needs to be regulated very closely while I'm on Coumadin (my super-power anticoagulant). My INR level (International Normalised Ratio) needs to be between a 2.0 and 3.0, which is essentially the speed that my blood clots at (the higher the number, the slower my blood clots). When I started on Coumadin, I couldn't seem to get below a 3.0, which isn't horrible, but it increases my risk of bleeding out (i.e. bleeding into the brain). So we decreased my daily dose from 5 mg to 4 mg. And since then, my INR has been steadily declining. 4 weeks ago it was a 2.9. 2 weeks ago it was a 2.0. When it hit 2.0, both me and my dad thought that my daily dosage should be increased. My doctor left it at 4 mg a day and told me to come back in 2 weeks. And I knew that I would come back and that it would be below 2.0. I was right. I went in today and my INR was 1.7. And they didn't change my dose!! They kept me at 4 mg a day! ARE THEY TRYING TO KILL ME??? When INR goes below 2.0, it dramatically increases my risk of developing clots again. Oh, and did I mention I have 7 hours worth of flying to do on Friday? (long flights are a main cause of blood clots, I have been instructed to get up and walk around the plane at least once an hour to maintain blood flow).
So, I called my dad as soon as I walked out of there. He was furious and declared it 'unacceptable'. He is a doctor who has been doing this for 30 years, so I trust him implicitly (especially since he diagnosed me with a pulmonary embolism 3 days before I ended up in the ER). He upped my daily dose to 5 mg and hopefully that will take effect soon enough that I don't die while flying to Seattle on Friday.
Current mood: once I get over my frustration with my incompetent doctors, ECSTATIC
1. All of my genetic testing has come back negative, which means that my clotting isn't a chronic problem and I will be able to get off Coumadin sooner
2. While talking to my dad, he suggested that on Saturday, that him and I drive to my brother's house, which is only an hour and a half away from my dad. I ecstatically agreed, since my brother and his wife recently had their 4th child and I haven't had a chance to meet the little tyke yet. I called my sister-in-law to make sure it was ok that my dad and I come calling on Saturday, and learned that all of my family that lives in my hometown were ALSO coming to visit that weekend. And so, I will get to spend Saturday with my ENTIRE immediate family. My mom. My dad. My sister. My two brothers. And my 9 (yes 9!) nieces and nephews. I am ridiculously excited.
3. We have been babysitting 2 cats for a month now. At first I was ridiculously excited. I am a MAD animal lover and my life feels incomplete without a pet. Both cats are about a year old, so they have ridiculous amounts of energy and are very needy cats. After a few weeks with them, their welcome began to wear thin. One of them always sleeps with me at night. She wakes me up by taking a swipe at my face (which I could not get to stop bleeding, thanks coumadin!) and this morning by digging a claw into the bottom of my foot. Most of the time, I kick her feline ass out, especially cause she starts to get really vocal about needing attention around 6:30 in the morning, but I like having something curled up to me, so sometimes I let her stay. However, they are leaving tomorrow.
No more living room covered in litter.
No more cat hair everywhere.
No more bodies CONSTANTLY underfoot.
No more waking up in the middle of the night to my incredibly expensive makeup brush collection being strewn about my room.
4. Okay, so the weight loss thing was sidelined a little during my initial recovery. Somehow I managed to maintain the weight that I had hit and not gained anything back, even though I wasn't working out at all and not exactly staying on points. I went back into working out with a vengeance mode last week and lost 2 more pounds as of this morning. Total weight loss to date- 35 pounds.
Today's Title from: Everything I am by Kanye West
Posted by Chloe
at 11:21 PM |
Permalink to And I'm back to tear it up, Haters, start your engines |
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