Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
I am happy to report that I got my very own Coaguchek today!
The trainer came to my house and had me practice with her.
She was really patient and kind and I am happy to be able to do this at home.
I recommend Tapestry if others want to try for a home monitor.
The bad news is that my INR, which is usually really stable, was 4.3.
I have had the migraine from hell (11 days long- I've been miserable) and my neurologist put me on steroids to see if that would help.
I guess the steroids bumped my INR up.
Ugh.
My coumadin clinic closes at noon on Fridays, so I am currently on hold trying to get my primary care doc to give me some advice.
The trainer came to my house and had me practice with her.
She was really patient and kind and I am happy to be able to do this at home.
I recommend Tapestry if others want to try for a home monitor.
The bad news is that my INR, which is usually really stable, was 4.3.
I have had the migraine from hell (11 days long- I've been miserable) and my neurologist put me on steroids to see if that would help.
I guess the steroids bumped my INR up.
Ugh.
My coumadin clinic closes at noon on Fridays, so I am currently on hold trying to get my primary care doc to give me some advice.
http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Pulmonary_Embolism/forum/6740940-coaguchek-xs-inr-meter
DavidT1952, There have been several discussions about this lately. I posted a link above for one that is on page 3 or 4. You'll find a lot of helpful info there.
In short,
it really depends on your insurance.
I went through Tapestry.
http://www.tapestrymedical.com/
They contacted my insurance for me and made all of the arrangements. My hematologist faxed a prescription. The process took about 3 months.
My insurance paid 90%. I was told that I had unusually good insurance. Since the total cost was around $2500 for the machine, lancets and test strips, I paid around $250.
Karen xx
Luv and HUGS
Ferr
That's a really interesting observation about your INR and headaches. I'm really glad you took the time to tell me that.
I don't know what my INR was when the migraine started because I didn't have the Coaguchek yet and had not been to the coumadin clinic in 3 weeks.
However, I am hoping the Coaguchek will help me keep my migraines under control in the future.
I'm going to keep a record of my INR and migraines in the same place and track it all.
I already know that being on coumadin helps my migraines considerably. Before my PE, I was having migraines 65% of the time. As soon as I went on Lovenox and then Coumadin, I went 6 weeks w/out a migraine- a record for me.
(I'm not alone in this- others have reported similar results, especially those with APS.)