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I'm glad you are OK, and can't directly help with the "how low should I go" question, but as ever @pellicle makes some strong arguments as to why your INR level may well not have been a factor. However, my concern is that 2.4 is significantly below your therapeutic range - how often do you test...

@pellicle 'm afraid I have had to set our friend to "ignore" - having seen many of the more recent messages and threads, and looked through some older ones, I fear there is nothing I can say of any value to him.

It's somewhat ironic that this thread has become a discussion on the meaning of an emoji when they were originally developed to "add emotional nuance to otherwise flat text" - or in other words, to add back in the facial expressions we see when conversing face-to-face, and therefore help...

Welcome, Paul. This week my INR is 2.7, and the range for my valve/other conditions is 2.5 to 3.5. If you haven't already done so, look for information about the CoaguChek devices, to be able to monitor your INR at home/wherever you are, with a finger-prick of blood. Ideally, then test weekly...

The quiet sound of my valve doesn't bother me at all. I have to pay close attention to hear it. I have mild tinnitus too. My diet is inconsistent re vitamin K foods. Occasionally I have to adjust my Warfarin dose, up or down 1mg for a day.

Ah yes! Beta blockers are great for powerful dreams! I regularly wake up in the morning quite angry that something I was quite passionate about has been interrupted by waking up ... but no idea what it was!

One thing that I have learnt since discovering this excellent forum, which happened after my surgery, is that I am odd. Very odd. Having struggled with shortness of breath for quite a few months whilst I slowly went to different diagnostic tests for them to find out what was wrong, when they...

Oh wow, quite the experience. Don't worry about the pacemaker. I got mine too from a surgical complication, and took me a few months to even start to think about what I needed to know! Are you home yet? I am sure they will have given you the hygiene pep talk, but remember: infection is the...

110/58 is a bit low, but as long as you don't feel dizzy it is ok. According to the NHS, ideal blood pressure is considered to be between 90/60mmHg and 120/80mmHg If my systolic is below 60 I can feel dizzy, but all sorts of factors affect blood pressure, including if you are dehydrated. After...

Hi @MattyO , just wanted to extend a welcome from a fellow Brit! I think we are about the same age (I was born 1965) but beyond that my heart history is very different to yours: I had a mechanical valve inserted for stenosis about 10 years ago. It does sound amazing that your tissue valve has...

Beta blockers lower blood pressure and can cause tiredness, among a range of side effects.

I had my heart surgery 10 years ago now, and have been on a betablocker ever since. They started me on Metoprolol, but I found it interfered with the blood flow to my legs (I am also diabetic), and so after trying several others I have been on Nebivolol mostly. However, I have what they have...

This has been an interesting thread, as I too have an aortic valve damaging my red blood cells (diagnosed a few months after surgery as normocytic normochromic anaemia) and am on an iron tablet twice a day. Not sure if it is quite the same, but as my iron levels are always bumping along the...

In the UK, our National Institute of Clinical Excellence recommends the use of the CoaguChek device because of its reliability and sufficient accuracy. Indeed, many clinical settings now use the multi-patient version of the device, as I alluded to in my previous reply. If two such machines are...

If it was me, I would take both my machines into the hospital clinic and do a test on each machine (getting a fresh drop of blood from a different finger for each) in front of them, so that you can show (a) your technique and (b) their results, and then they can compare those with the lab when...

@W84Me are you on Facebook? There is a Heart Valve Surgery Support Group, where I saw this post today: Life is what you make of it :)

Did you do the test on the basis of NOT having the valve replaced? That score is 100%

I disagree that they are a good read. The document is more than 30 years old, and much has changed since then. Not least the introduction of POC devices like the CoaguChek meter to monitor INR and enabling the patient to manage it effectively, and valve design. The author of the first report...

Thank you for taking the trouble to provide that, @love lucio ! However, as the question is over 3 years old now and Covid controls have ended, I am back at the dentist for regular cleaning :)

Two random thoughts from me: I have never really noticed the ticking with my 29mm St Jude (now in its 10th year). It is very quiet, and I have to actively listen for it to notice. I am not sure of the factors that affect the sound level: valve alignment? Valve size (with larger valves...