My Life on Warfarin

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pellicle

Professional Dingbat, Guru and Merkintologist
Joined
Nov 4, 2012
Messages
13,899
Location
Queensland, OzTrayLeeYa
Hi

One of the things which bugs me about these forums is that it inevitably becomes a place of doom and dismay. People posting sad stories of their woes and illness (me too by the way) but instead of just writing reactively to the newbies who are horrized at the prospects of the surgery they face I'd like to start a thread that is proactive and encourage others to post their own daily success stories "my life on warfarin".

I believe something like this from the many athletes and active members would prove a good inspiration for those who suddenly face "the horror". Proof by living life that life goes on. You know, the "good news stories" which are often somehow ignored by the anxiety felt at discovery.

For myself I think I'll attempt to write a little sub journal here over time, to show folks who seem terrorised by the (bullshit) that they are fed about the horrors of warfarin that indeed surgery is not an end point, but just a milestone to how many more years you can spend healthy and loving life not just gradually dying over a year or two as people did before heart valve surgery existed.

I'd like to underscore how wrong many of the messages like: you can't do cold and how you can't do exersize and what ever the fcuk bullshit their Dr's have fed them ... They are wrong because they are generalisations made by people who only see (in the main) aged and weak, not less than 50 (or even less than 30) people who just have a plain plumbing problem (their valve).

So for the casual reader I had my 3rd Open Heart Sugery in 2011, I had a mechanical valve fitted. Since then I've faced challenges but with a bit of fighting back have and continue to "enjoy my life".

Yesterday I went out for a ski to a destination near here. In Finland Skiing is not swanny resort down hill BS its actually how you get around and do **** when its cold and covered in snow. Interestingly historically no one snow shoes here as if you know how to ski why the hell would you snow shoe?

So I went off track (can't see the walking trails under 50cm of snow anyway) to my favourite little place. After I got down into the valley I could see it across the lake, that little roof in the trees is it:

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it took me about an hour to get to here from the car ... So I skied across the lake to the shelter, where I put off my skis (note the bindings for anyone unfamiliar with XC Back Country bindings) and had a small fire and some food and warm berry juice.

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Its sad how so many more bogans are getting to these places now, the fireplace did have a nice steel frame once, but dickheads seem to enjoy smashing things ... alas

On the slope back I encountered some delightful little pine trees bent under the weight of snow, waiting for their chance to grow big and tall like their sisters.

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as this was down in a valley I had to "climb out" ... lovely little ponds like this one (Finns differentiate between Lakes (Jarvi) and Ponds (Lampi) and this little place was a Lampi), so I had to scale the hills out. This was (in typical Karelian geography) very steep. Note that the tops of the Pines from down at the lake are about where I've climbed to and that's in a horizontal distance of about 20 meters)

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For folks who don't know much about cross country skiing, you can't "walk up hills" but you can traverse up sideways. So perhaps you can make out the long trail of sideways ski marks as I walked sideways up this hill. Its not easy but its a dam sight easier than snow shoeing when the snow is about 30cm deep (that's a foot deep but it depends on your foot I suppose) and you sink in and pull up a snow shoe covered with snow (if its fallen in on your shoe, if you can lift you foot).

This folks is why I love it here .. (although I could easily see that the same things are why some hate it here).

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So, over to you....
 
I can see why this is one of your favorite places to take a ski and visit. So peaceful and beautiful. It reminds me of skiing and snowmobiling in the mountains of Maine
Thanks for sharing your photos and captions. Looks like you had a recent wet snowfall, so much stuck to the trees.
Cheers!
Rob
 
Hi Rob

thanks ... I hope more people share some things ... fishing trips, what ever ... might make the difference to some newbies who are worried.

RobThatsMe;n871162 said:
... Looks like you had a recent wet snowfall, so much stuck to the trees.

yeah the temps have risen in the last week or so to around -1C and that's caused some of the clumping. Also due to humidity here we get a lot of interesting frost formations which "grow" on everything.
http://cjeastwd.blogspot.com/2010/01/looks-like-snow.html

Temps vary during winter from -1 to -10 before Jan and after Jan we normally get around -10 to -27, so not quite as cold / dry as the northern high altitude stuff in the Eastern Rockies or in Alberta.

I guess its not as wet as what we call "ocean snow" here in Eastern Finland but the stuff over in the west (and Norway) is often quite heavy. I haven't snow shoed in Canada (yet) but in mid winter its probably more sensible as an option than it is here in Finland as you just won't get any glide and in the tight forest skis are "awkward' at times.
 
Beautiful photos and inspiring post. :)

I spent a summer in Finland in 1976 working with Finnish disabled people. Had a glorious time living in a cabin in the woods and swimming naked in lakes. I’d just turned 18 and Finland was a young man’s dream. Never seen it in winter but those images of its virgin snow make it extremely enticing … Kiitos!
 
Seaton;n871168 said:
Beautiful photos and inspiring post. :)
...I'd just turned 18 and Finland was a young man’s dream
...
I spent a summer in Finland in 1976 ...Never seen it in winter but those images of its virgin snow make it extremely enticing … Kiitos!


Samoin :)

and thank you for sharing ... Finlands pretty good for an old bastard like me too ;-)

In the last few months I've exchanged this:

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for this:

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All made possible (for one who is on wafarin for life) by self testing ...

No longer are mech-valvers slaves to a clinic (if they don't want to be).

Life can be rich ... if you want it to be
 
Thanks for sharing this, it is important! I was initially nervous about being on warfarin, but honestly I wouldn't know I was on it except for taking my pill at 8 pm every evening and checking my INR levels. I eat what I want and do what I want and it has stayed pretty stable in the 2.2-2.4 range.

Also your pictures are beautiful! I love seeing beautiful snow pictures, as we don't have snow here in AZ. Today the high temp was 60*F.
 
The family when on a three week road trip this summer. Covered 6,800 miles driving (that's roughly 10,900 km to some of you). Temps ranged from just above freezing to over 110°F. Elevation from about 600f above see level to over 14,000 ft at Pikes Peak. We hiked the following national parks: Rocky Mountain, Arches, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Grand Canyon, Sequoia, and Yosemite. Included stops at the Hoover Dam, Pikes Peak, Pacific Ocean and Disneyland.

I had my monitor and meds with me and tested and called in my results weekly. No issues with temp or elevation changes. But I will say - altitude sickness is very real. Took a short hike at nearly 12,000 ft and was seeing blue. Really takes some getting used to.

Our youngest was only four - so our hikes were in consideration of that. Avoided Clingman's Dome in Yosemite, but hiked up Sentinel Dome. We only hiked about 1.5 miles down the Grand Canyon. We hiked quite a couple miles into the Narrows at Zion. An amazing hike right in a river. Hiked to the bottom of Bryce Canyon and back out (of course). I'll see if I can load some pictures later.
 
Lovely pics, and good idea for the blog Pellicle.

My life on Warfarin hasn't involved snow yet, just sun, wind and rain as I go about my everyday life of (office) work, commuting, pubbing (moderate alcohol consumption only, normally wine or beer) and travel. When I go on holiday I pack my trusty CoaguChek XS to keep an eye on my INR wherever I am. In fact when I first flew after the AVR surgery, about 4 months later, almost my entire hand luggage seemed to be medical equipment, tablets and injection equipment for dealing with insulin! As it was for two weeks, the liquids I took (which included insulin cartridges of course) meant that I needed 2 of those little plastic bags, so I was expecting searches and questions at airport security. So I had doctor's letter, pacemaker ID etc etc. But no! Not stopped at all, no questions either leaving London or arriving in the Canary Islands (which are also in Europe of course, despite being off the coast of Africa) in either direction of travel.
 
Hi
LondonAndy;n871204 said:
Lovely pics, and good idea for the blog Pellicle.

hey ... and this point comes up now and then too ... good one!

... so I was expecting searches and questions at airport security. So I had doctor's letter, pacemaker ID etc etc. But no! Not stopped at all, no questions either leaving London or arriving in the Canary Islands (which are also in Europe of course, despite being off the coast of Africa) in either direction of travel.
 
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