G
Gemma
Hi,
I'm curious as to whether everybody has as hard a time as Jim seems to be having in convincing their anti-coagulation clinic they are safe to test their INR at home with a Coaguchek monitor (or whatever their preferred monitor is).
When he went for his first INR test at the hospital clinic, they used a coaguchek, so obviously they don't have a problem with the machine itself. Jim's GP thinks it's a great idea for Jim to test himself. However, it seems that the hospital clinic themselves won't agree to it. They prefer the tried and tested "take a pint of blood" (OK, I'm exagerrating. A bit) method which involves waiting hours or even days to find out what the INR is (over in the UK we have a yellow record book which is posted back to the patient when it's been updated - if there's a dosage change they phone the same day, if not it is just posted back - not sure if that's how they do it in the states).
We're currently waiting for some information from Anti-Coagulation Europe, who seem to think their literature will convince the hospital otherwise. I think we need to go and talk to the haematologist about it really. Jim's only 27 and has got (hopefully) several decades ahead of him, which I think he'd prefer to spend without having syringes stuck in his arms every 4-6 weeks. Also testing yourself with a home testing monitor means you can do it more often if necessary, and apparently people who self-test stay in range more of the time, maybe because they're taking more responsibility for themselves?
Can't see why it'd be a problem really - he's a precision engineer for goodness sakes so it's not like he's not mentally or physically capable of operating the machine!!!!!
So, anyway, what I'd particularly like to know is if anybody in the UK has had to deal with this problem, but I'd welcome advice from the USA too.
How did you convince them you could do it and you weren't going to disappear never to be seen again? How often do you have to have "control" tests at the clinic to prove your monitor is working properly? That kind of thing. Apparently the hospital insurance doesn't cover home-testing, so if Jim had a clot he couldn't sue them... I think they're kind of missing the point - my understanding is if he used it properly he'd be LESS at risk of this happening.
This is really the last hurdle we need to get over on the road to "normality" - I'm not sure if we should just give up or keep banging our heads against the brick wall we've come up against. (OK, I'll do the head-banging - wouldn't want Jim to have a brain haemorrhage )
Gemma.
I'm curious as to whether everybody has as hard a time as Jim seems to be having in convincing their anti-coagulation clinic they are safe to test their INR at home with a Coaguchek monitor (or whatever their preferred monitor is).
When he went for his first INR test at the hospital clinic, they used a coaguchek, so obviously they don't have a problem with the machine itself. Jim's GP thinks it's a great idea for Jim to test himself. However, it seems that the hospital clinic themselves won't agree to it. They prefer the tried and tested "take a pint of blood" (OK, I'm exagerrating. A bit) method which involves waiting hours or even days to find out what the INR is (over in the UK we have a yellow record book which is posted back to the patient when it's been updated - if there's a dosage change they phone the same day, if not it is just posted back - not sure if that's how they do it in the states).
We're currently waiting for some information from Anti-Coagulation Europe, who seem to think their literature will convince the hospital otherwise. I think we need to go and talk to the haematologist about it really. Jim's only 27 and has got (hopefully) several decades ahead of him, which I think he'd prefer to spend without having syringes stuck in his arms every 4-6 weeks. Also testing yourself with a home testing monitor means you can do it more often if necessary, and apparently people who self-test stay in range more of the time, maybe because they're taking more responsibility for themselves?
Can't see why it'd be a problem really - he's a precision engineer for goodness sakes so it's not like he's not mentally or physically capable of operating the machine!!!!!
So, anyway, what I'd particularly like to know is if anybody in the UK has had to deal with this problem, but I'd welcome advice from the USA too.
How did you convince them you could do it and you weren't going to disappear never to be seen again? How often do you have to have "control" tests at the clinic to prove your monitor is working properly? That kind of thing. Apparently the hospital insurance doesn't cover home-testing, so if Jim had a clot he couldn't sue them... I think they're kind of missing the point - my understanding is if he used it properly he'd be LESS at risk of this happening. This is really the last hurdle we need to get over on the road to "normality" - I'm not sure if we should just give up or keep banging our heads against the brick wall we've come up against. (OK, I'll do the head-banging - wouldn't want Jim to have a brain haemorrhage
)Gemma.
