Oxford University Study on Self Monitoring

I agreed to take part in the Oxford University self monitoring study.  I hope that my contribution will help improve the ridiculous system we currently have in the UK.

http://madox.org/projects/monitoring/inr

So far i've had to send my results in once, and have had a telephone interview.  They are very nice and friendly and I have chosen to tell them the truth about everything rather than hold it back as I do for other professionals.

Unfortunately it's not always easy to find the time to complete a telephone questionnaire, I would perfer to have done it online.  Perhaps there's a reason - like the need for detailed explanations or interpretation of answers.

Stomach Bug

I had a bit of a stomach bug which included some Diarrhea - not terrible by any means, just a bit.

My warfarin was an obvious concern, so i monitored it every couple of days.  Everything seemed OK, and I fully recovered.  I then tested 2 days later and it had plummeted to the lowest ever - 1.8.

I was very concerned about this, and was considering going to hospital to get some Heparin cover whilst the warfarin was inaffective, but decided against.  It was only a little under acceptable, so i decided to take a high dose instead.  I took 9.0 and topped it up with 2.0 the next morning, effectively an 11.0 dose.

By the next day it had climbed to 2.1, then 2 days later to 2.8.  Back under control, thank goodness.

Here are the results and doses: