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A question about chest tube holes... this morning when I got out of the shower I noticed a big white colored something under the steri-strips, which the nurse had told me to leave on till they fell off but which never did... I took them off and there was this big white sort of coagulated...

That’s a great idea. Thank you.

9.7?!?! Holy crap! K2 YOU had on hand?? Wtf?!?!?! Thank you for your message Chuck - I’ve been reading your thread but must’ve missed this part. So glad you’re alright now. Phew. Maybe I better get some k2 too. For now I’ve got two big *** bottles of v8, just in case, and eat my daily salad...

Hey guys, Thanks so much for all the information!!! It’s so good to know there are people out there who know what they’re doing and can help. I tried calling around to find a new pcp/anticoagulation clinic today... The nurse practitioner at the place closest to my town was so scandalized at...

Went to the Coumadin clinic and new cardiologist today - what a disaster. First, he didn’t have any of my records and said he didn’t need any of them..... They did an ekg right before he came in but he didn’t tell me the results or if he even looked at it. After messing with his phone he...

A question - My heart rate gets up to 130-140 on a short walk, though it’s at 60-70 resting. Is that too much of a jump? Should I try harder to avoid even tiny hills? Should I not be trying to skip one (or two..) of the three metoprolol doses each day and just find a way to deal with the side...

That was my reasoning in staying with 5 mg last night even after a 3.3 reading. I only have 5 mg (or broken in half, 2.5 mg) pills right now. And also I’m curious to see what maintaining the dose, while eating my usual amount of vegetables, will do when I check INR tomorrow. If I had changed the...

8 Sternal wires? Wow. I’m wondering if they could be what’s causing the random new aches I feel here and there in my chest the last few mornings. Don’t know how many they used but it might be in the surgical record I’m going to request tomorrow. So funny, the gap between the information they...

I was looking for those stats! I KNOW I read papers / evidence recommending an INR of 2.5-3.5 for mechanical valves in the aortic position but now I can’t find it. Have to dig through my giant stack of papers.

Yep, that’s just what I was thinking. Also I’m vegan but was laying off the veggies so I could get out of the hospital. First salad since coming home is tonight - hooray!

An update: I did it! I took my own INR, by myself, thanks to everyone’s tips on lancet size and rubber band tourniquets and warming your hand and everything. Thank you. Result in just a minute, with no smelly nurse who didn’t wash her hands, no IVs, no two hour wait till I can see it in...

Look ta the what?

Post-op day 7 & somehow I thought I didn’t really need pain meds anymore... Ugh!!!! so this is what ‘not staying ahead of the pain’ feels like. Has anyone felt a sharp pain behind where the chest tubes were, on breathing in? Woke up to that, plus worse shoulder and back and neck pain, plus the...

Finally got out of the hospital yesterday, on post-op day 6, after my INR reached 2.2 from 1.5, with the help of a heparin drip for almost 24 hours. There was some confusion with the surgeon’s nurse who for some reason thought my range should be 2.0-3.0, with a mechanical valve (not on-x) - if...

Did you find anyone like that at UCLA, Chuck? I hope so. For me, the search continues, haha.

I think if you call CC and explain the situation they’ll probably tell you who specializes in AVRs; I read all the surgeons’ biographies and looked at their published papers to see what their specialties were, but just asking might work too.

How do I ignore someone? I can’t figure it out.

I have no idea what exact data they base the determination to hold warfarin on in this kind of case; but they do enough of these that they should know what they’re doing, right? This is exactly the kind of question my nurses & doctors HATE, lol. (“Why hold, not decrease, warfarin, for a day?”)

Mini sternotomy. 2 drain tubes, one stuck way up in my right shoulder practically. Recovery does go fast, I can’t believe it - I felt like myself again waking up today. I can almost walk at a normal, albeit slow, pace, instead of pausing at every step or two to catch my breath and balance...

Oh yeah, forgot to say - and I wanted to ask you guys about this. They held the warfarin for a day because I was getting the pacing wires pulled out the next day; and since I’d gone up to 2.4 so quickly, they thought I’d be too high (and might have a bleeding complication I guess). I thought at...