I must thank everyone here -- but especially Al Lodwick -- for my education in anticoagulation. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!
Last Friday I flew to Houston. While I was waiting at the luggage carousel, another person who had flown in for the cat show spotted me and we chatted. My cousin & I gave her a lift to her hotel, and en route we chatted some more. I mentioned I had gotten through security w/ my clindamycin solution to protect me against those "ferocious" show cats, I joked, and bandaids against all the bleeding, again joking. I explained that I'm on warfarin, and my friend said, "Oh, don't you just LOVE that drug!!!!!!!!!" I picked up a sense of familiarity & quizzed her.
She had a doozie of a stroke in January 2005 and was put on warfarin, then had some hemorrhaging in October 2005. She went off warfarin because of that & had some TIAs. She did have to use Lovenox, too. (She says she still has some vision problems from the stroke, but otherwise I would not have known she had had a stroke.)
I told her I haven't had problems, that I don't have a choice about the warfarin and so I make the best of the situation. That I home-test my blood & adjust my dosage myself. I told her you can replace blood cells, but not brain cells.
I didn't have enough time to visit w/ her to learn if she had a bad ATC manager or was non-compliant. But I thanked my lucky stars I found www.valvereplacement.com 3 years ago. I mentioned the website to her.
The next day, a visitor to the convention center suffered a massive stroke -- we think possibly fatal -- while waiting for a wedding to begin in another area of the center. We heard about the situation that night at dinner. The friend I saw @ the Houston airport was stunned to hear of someone having such a severe stroke. (See post under Heart Talk.)
So -- THANK YOU, EVERYBODY!
Last Friday I flew to Houston. While I was waiting at the luggage carousel, another person who had flown in for the cat show spotted me and we chatted. My cousin & I gave her a lift to her hotel, and en route we chatted some more. I mentioned I had gotten through security w/ my clindamycin solution to protect me against those "ferocious" show cats, I joked, and bandaids against all the bleeding, again joking. I explained that I'm on warfarin, and my friend said, "Oh, don't you just LOVE that drug!!!!!!!!!" I picked up a sense of familiarity & quizzed her.
She had a doozie of a stroke in January 2005 and was put on warfarin, then had some hemorrhaging in October 2005. She went off warfarin because of that & had some TIAs. She did have to use Lovenox, too. (She says she still has some vision problems from the stroke, but otherwise I would not have known she had had a stroke.)
I told her I haven't had problems, that I don't have a choice about the warfarin and so I make the best of the situation. That I home-test my blood & adjust my dosage myself. I told her you can replace blood cells, but not brain cells.
I didn't have enough time to visit w/ her to learn if she had a bad ATC manager or was non-compliant. But I thanked my lucky stars I found www.valvereplacement.com 3 years ago. I mentioned the website to her.
The next day, a visitor to the convention center suffered a massive stroke -- we think possibly fatal -- while waiting for a wedding to begin in another area of the center. We heard about the situation that night at dinner. The friend I saw @ the Houston airport was stunned to hear of someone having such a severe stroke. (See post under Heart Talk.)
So -- THANK YOU, EVERYBODY!
