Back in the horse-pistol again

You have an atrial fibrillation. (its a skipping of the heartbeat probably due to an enlarged left ventricle). Im on coumadin and , while its a pain, its a gift.
You need to have your blood clotting time measured (in a mesurement test called an INR). A little machine takes a drop of your blood and times the formation of fibrin in such a fashion that it makes the drop opaque to a little light of a certain wavelength. (The machine is really like a little eye- switch cell on a garage door opener). When you begin your Coumadin, you are trying to maintain an INR of between 2 and 3. These numbers a merely a ratio time of the chemistry in blood clotting and its all done with a light and a clock. A lower INR number means your blood is clotting tooslowly and clots could form which leave you risking a stroke or a heart attack. A higher number means your blood is clotting too slowly and you could develop internal bleeding. (HAppened to me once when I had an INR of about 4.5 and I got plowed into a sail boom on a boat

Ya learn to live with coumadin but you will have to adjust your diet a bit. Im afraid that overindulgence of deep green veggies will be off the menu because they have vitamin k which clots blood and antagonizes your coumadin therapy.

Also liquor in excess will anatgonize your therapy in the opposite direction. (You could of course go on a liquor therapy , but youd have to staty drunk to keep your blood alcohol high enough to jack up youir INR-but I dont reccomend it).

Smoking also antagonizes your INR by lowering it and making your blood clot more quickly and makes your blood foull smelling like smoke.

Living in a stroke world is not my idea of fun as I enter more deeply into my 60's. I know a guy whose 85 and he was a smoker and he developed an At fib (atrial fibrillation). He ytried getting it "converted" back to normal rythm several times and each time the At fib kicked in after a few months. SO he went on a coumadin life therapy and hes a jogger and an old timer who gets involved in long range hiking and he drives our township snow plow in the winter.

LIFESTYLE, DIET, AND MEDS, thats the ticket. Theres a bazillion of us out there who live with the rat poison therapy

Both of my folks have had A-fib at one point or another, and my father is on and off coumadin. Skeery but, hell, doctors can actually do something about it all now.

Hang in there, Andy.

Well, I know a couple of folks with A-fib, too, ... and learnt that about 70% don't know that they've got it.

Reduce smoking a bit and do what you're told to do, Andy

Well, this sucks.

I have no advice to give or knowledge to share.
Just know that I am sending positive thoughts out for ya.

Stay merry.

oops, I meant to say that a HIGH INR number means your blood isnt clotting quickly enough. Sorry

Thnx for all that valuable info, fm. Alcohol isn't a problem as I've been 100 % off the booze now for almost 17 years. Green veggies are more of a challenge -- I love spinach, Brussels sprouts, collard greens etc. etc. etc. I'll try to remember.

More lab work schedled for Monday. And I have to make an appointment with the cardiologist for sometime next week.

Ah Andrei, I bet you'll outlive and outfox us all!. Good luck.

those are all high vitamin K veggies Merry. It doesnt mean that you stay off, it means you must adjust your dose to accomodate them. I take a 5 mg daily and a 7.5 mg two X a week, and my INR i always 2.5 SO I also eat lotsa ka;e salads an collard greens (We am southern folk and we likes our greens and hocks).

Yep, you just need to let your doctor know that green veggies are a regular part of your diet and they'll adjust the coumadin dose.

One thing you may want to do if you are going to be on the coumadin for awhile, especially if you are going to be out and about, is get an ID bracelet and wallet card that identifies you as a coumadin patient. Most drug stores have these on the shelf or you can order them online.

It helps others to know they'll have to use extra blood clotting measures should you be injured and unable to speak about it yourself.

Here's a link to one that is in the Walgreens stores. It includes the bracelet and wallet card.

http://www.walgreens.com/store/c/sabona-large/x-large-men's-magnetic-medical-id-bracelet/ID=prod6047132-product



You'll also want to make sure you have plenty of warm clothes and blankets while on the Coumadin, especially in the upcoming winter months. No doubt, you'll suffer the notorious Coumadin chills.

If you have animals in the house, you'll want to be sure their claws (cats and dogs) are trimmed so you aren't so easily scratched.

As for the transportation costs to get you to the hospital on the other island, here's a link to Hawaii's Heart Foundation. Perhaps they can help you find a way to get there:

http://www.hawaiiheart.org/

Here's their founder's contact info from the website:
Founder
Pamela Foster, RN
808.440.8988
[email protected]

Here's a link to the Hawaii chapter of the American Heart Assoc.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Affiliate/Honolulu/Hawaii/Home_UCM_WSA048_AffiliatePage.jsp#

and their contact info:

Oahu:
677 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 600
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: 808-538-7021

Maui (mailing address only):
677 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 600
Honolulu, HI 96813
Phone: 808-244-7185

Hawaii:
P.O. Box 11043
Hilo, HI 96721
Phone: 808-961-2825

Kauai (Serviced by Oahu):
Phone: 808-538-7021

And here's some medical transport service companies in Hawaii:

http://www.provcorp.com/Locations/Hawaii.asp



And, if you can qualify for Hawaii's medicaid program, your transport will be covered by them.

http://www.med-quest.us/eligibility/EligPrograms_MFFS.html





BBB just went through something similar, 3 days of non-stop blood work and every other test they could think of in the hospital because her blood pressure was shooting through the roof and she had odd sensations in her chest. Turns out it was due to an increased dosage of her dementia meds the week before. They couldn't find any other cause and her blood pressure went back to normal on the second day being totally off the dementia meds.

Be sure to have an accurate list of all the meds you are taking and make sure the doctors review it.

If you have to be laid up for awhile post-surgery, you couldn't pick a better, more relaxing spot than Hawaii. Behave yourself and let folks help you take care of you.

Hope you feel better real soon!

Thank you, Butrflynet. I'lllook for that bracelet today while waiting for my prescription to be filled.

I have no advice to offer, Andrew.
I just want to wish you all the very best with the prescribed treatment.
Crossing my fingers for you!

When I said, "welcome back" I hadn't read this thread, until now.

So sorry Mr A but so glad that you have the spirit to just purely work with it and work it out....

I get the smoking bit, I can't kick it either but based on what I just read here, cutting down could be a "dang, have to do " ...thing......

what Felix said

Uh, Ive already told him what I eat and he and I already worked out my maintenance dosage . Ive been a green eatin coumadin tyaker for about 3 years now.
Dont be afreared of diets MA, you control; WHAT you wanmt to eat and then the dosgae can be easily adjusted. ALSO, I got one of the INR machines at home and I have it looped to my docs data input files so we make adjustments and he can l;earn from my experience. It used to be that diets were a proscription against anything that interefered with the drug. Now , te drugs are dosed based on the way we live, thats way more sane.

I suppose I should get one of them bracelets. I hate any jewelry , even watches. Maybe Ill wear one of them tags with my St Christopher medal

With the line of work you do, your farm and your hobbies, I'm very surprised you don't already have one.

Will I have to nag you about it until you tell me you got one?

Maybe Ill get an RFID, then Ill be ahead of the game when the bodysnatchers take over.

Im an atheist but I wear a ST Christopher medal. Ill prolly hang my coumadin badge with Saint Chris

That was for Andy, not you, bud. My aim was off.

They have dog tag type pendants that would work. This particular one on the Walgreens site also includes a wallet card:

dont carry a wallet. carry 2 credit cards and my drivers licensew is in the car. Ill wear the dog tag