Surgeon's Opinion

Now my brain is back to normal working order, it's time for a consult with the surgeon.

My surgeon is Christopher Young of London St Thomas' or London Bridge hospital.  From the moment I met him I have had nothing but respect and admiration for him, his style, his knowledge, and his caring approach to me as an individual.  Unlike others I met he's interested in me, my lifestyle, my skill set, and used this individual information to formulate a plan to fit in with my life.

I told him about the self testing and he said it was "The only way to go".  How often should I test?  He said every 2 days if it was him, and acknowledged that most others would disagree with him on this point!

Starting on Warfarin

The day after surgery, the Warfarin starts.  They started me on 8mg in the belief that this level of the drug should be higher than my regular dose will settle at, and should bump start the therapy.

INR is the measure used to state how quickly the blood clots, and it can be tested either in a hospital lab or on a 'finger prick' machine like the one I own.  My target INR is between 2.5 and 3.0 and needs to stay in this range.   If too low I have a risk of stroking, and if too high of bleeding and being very susceptible to bruising, and worse.

The first three days continued at 8mg, and then they decided to cut it back to 5mg.  Immediately following this the rise in INR stopped and fell back.  The next day they realised the mistake and fixed it by going to 9mg for a day then back to 8mg.  This meant that my warfarin didn't get "Into Range" for 8 days which is disappointing!

Here are my test results, and doses, for the first few days: