Alcohol

I have little doubt that this will be the first of many posts that include alcohol discussion.  Before the operation I used to drink a fair amount - perhaps an average week would include a couple of glasses of wine 3 days per week, and a big binge on Friday... and possibly Saturday too.

I've already had up to 1 glass of wine in the evening a couple of times and seen no warfarin affect.

So, i have a wedding and the night after to drink.  I ended up drinking the most I had since the operation, somewhat reassured by my ability to self-test and fix the problem myself.  However, I don't really know how big the problem will be.

I drank a lot.  I felt really quite drunk on the way home.  Hard to know how much, over the whole (long) evening, perhaps 4 beers, 5 glasses of wine - something like that.

Turns out that the warfarin climbed from 2.5 back to 3.1 as a result of the nights drinking.  A test another day later saw it still at 3.1.  So, no real problem here then - i've proved that a night on the lash isn't a big issue.

Here are the test results and doses for the antibiotics and alcohol episode:

Antibiotics

I had to attend a dental checkup and hygienist appointment and this required preventative antibiotics to be taken 1 hour before the procedure.  This was 3g Amoxicillin in a sachet mixed with water.

I was nervous about how this would affect the warfarin, and it turns out it took a dive from 3.2 to 2.5 - certainly not a major issue, but could be a problem if i'm ever on it for longer.

Anyway, I've got 2 nights of slight alcohol abuse coming up with a wedding, so I suspect this could swing it the other way...

Repeat Prescription

Not really running low, but I wanted to test the water and build up a stock pile of both warfarin and the test strips.  So I trotted to the doctor and asked the receptionist how to do a repeat prescription.  She gave me the form which already had all my prescriptions listed on it, i just needed to tick which ones I needed.

Except... the Coagucheck XS test strips were not listed.  So, I ticked all the warfarins (5,3,1,0.5mg) and then hand wrote "Coagucheck XS Strips".

Next morning, i popped around, and the prescription was written, and it included the strips (2 packs).

Why this nonsense?  Because the GP has to pay for the prescriptions, and when he prescribes he sees the cost on his screen - £120 each.  2 packs of those at £240 is quite a hit.

Second Hospital Test

Due to me missing the vital information of the next test on the posted slip, I ended up having no test for 2 weeks.... well, no official test, anyway!

On reattendance they made me wait, and then were planning on taking a full vial of blood for the test.  Still anemic, and now knowing the test to be utterly pointless due to my own testing, I spun them a story of me being scared of it, and would be unable to drive home after!  My creative nonsense amazes even me sometimes.  The stone-faced nurses immediately melted and became extremely caring!  They made a special exception and lined me up to see the specialist and take a finger-prick test instead.  Turns out they have the same brand of machine that I use at home, just a bigger version that holds data for multiple patients.

In a moment of letting my guard down, I showed all my results and dosages to the specialist.  She was not happy at all, and gave me a thorough telling off.  I was to stick to the prescribed doses at all times, and can only test myself to spot check and cannot react to tests at all.  After this I decided that all my results will be kept completely secret.