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.
...a new "PE" change has come my way...and I would appreciate your insight...
...been on Coumadin since 6/16/09...and I am "used to" having my INR and PT labs taken weekly...someone in the Dr's office said they might change my labs to monthly....is this normal? (I don't want to bleed to death)
...what do you folks think? and how often to do have INR; PT lab work done?
...(I kinda feel like I'm blind folded, been placed in a dark room, after having been spinned around with all this PE stuff)
:{ gulp
...been on Coumadin since 6/16/09...and I am "used to" having my INR and PT labs taken weekly...someone in the Dr's office said they might change my labs to monthly....is this normal? (I don't want to bleed to death)
...what do you folks think? and how often to do have INR; PT lab work done?
...(I kinda feel like I'm blind folded, been placed in a dark room, after having been spinned around with all this PE stuff)
:{ gulp
You are on blood thinners but in reality what that means is it takes longer for your blood to clot than others who are not on blood thinners. It doesn't mean your blood is actually thinner. The chances of you bleeding to death for a cut is very slim as long as you do standard first aid and get to a doctor to get checked out. Excluding arteries of course and then even people who aren't on coumadin would bleed to death. You do need to take the standard precautions such as if you get a head injury then yes get to an ER to get checked out immediately or if your in a serious accident then by all means get checked out immediately. It is a very good idea to wear a medical alert bracelet that lets EMT's know your on anti-coagulants in case you are ever found unconscious after an accident or injury. You can by inexpensive bracelets at your local drug store or a fancier one at a jewelry store.
I hope this helps relieve some of your fears.
Good Luck
Ferr
(Joyce)
Once they find the magical combination of mg of Warfarin/Coumadin and keep your INR pretty much consistent, you are often switched to a once a month testing. If, however, your INR starts bouncing around, then you may be back to once a week, twice a week, once every other week, and so on. (the INR roller coaster)
If they have been doing a PT/INR test that means they have been doing a blood draw (tube of blood) from you. Depending on the lab, they may be able to just perform a single finger stick INR test, which would be even better news (for your arms that is) :)
Are you fairly close to UNC Chapel Hill? You have one of the best blood clot docs in the entire nation over there (Dr. Stephan Moll).
Self-test guidelines allow for sufficient supplies to test weekly, which could catch an out-of-bounds situation sooner and allow a lower risk of complications.
As indicated before, your time on warfarin may be too short to justify purchase of the meter. However, services such as Phillips http://www.inrselftest.com/content/ have an alternative where they own the meter and you use it as long as you need it. The training time, supplies, and use of the service could still be more practical than the clinic.
Keep in mind diabetics used to have to go to the doctor for cumbersome blood tests and their care has evolved considerably.
: ^