totally silent valve

[westie]

country living

country living

.
hi kevin,
nice to hear from you; like you, i also live in the country, in my case i live 1.5 hours from auckland in a very remote place

guess this also disproves another warfarin myth, the one that says you should not live in a remote place far from medical facilities.

if you live in the masterton direction, i think you may be close to some great vineyards

what annoys you about your valve, is it the noise? which valve have you got? bridgette also went to the wakefield hospital

 

[Kvntoday]

Hi Westie,
Yes I have been corresponding with Brigid but I don't know what make of valve her and I have got , I have got the registration number for it and "Roche" gave me a free "Coagucheck" blood tester for my Warfarin so I do my own readings and log them into a web site with Dr Paul Harper at Palmerston North hospital and my dose comes back by computer within minutes and then I forward my reading and dose to my GP in Upper Hutt for him to log it in his records.
It sures beats going to the local hospital and getting blood tests, if you send me your email address I will forward the Web site for self testing......Cheers [email protected]

 

[westie]

what!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi Westie,
Yes I have been corresponding with Brigid but I don't know what make of valve her and I have got , I have got the registration number for it and "Roche" gave me a free "Coagucheck" blood tester for my Warfarin so I do my own readings and log them into a web site with Dr Paul Harper at Palmerston North hospital and my dose comes back by computer within minutes [email protected]

hello kevin

wow, i have learnt a lot from this post!

roche sure did not give me, or bridgette, a free coaguchek. as for the warfarin doseage site, i knew one was being developed in nz but did not realise it was operational. i would love to give this a go and i am sure members of vr.com would like to know more.

bridgette has got a on-x valve like me; frankly i am shocked you do not know what sort of mechanical valve you have got. i guess i am a bit extreme, but i feel it borders on unethical behaviour for a surgeon to not to even mention what sort/brand of valve is being implanted, except for emergency surgeries of course. and the surgeon should discuss the brands available etc and give the patient a chance to participate in the decision.

my guess is you would have been asking all sorts of questions if you had been a vr.com member prior to surgery.

surely your gp will have a record of your valve type/brand? or you could ask the surgeon

a pm follows

cheers


westie

 

[Bridgette]

I asked my surgeon what sort of mechanical valve I would be getting.

He brought a demo model of the On-x valve to my room and showed me how it worked etc etc, it was quite neat to see.

Kevin, if you have a card with a registration no on it, it should also state the make and model (like a car, lol)......

Westie, Kevin sure hit the jackpot when he got GIVEN a Coaguchek didn't he!!

Hey Kevin, can't remember if I already asked you this, but do you have to pay for your test strips or do you get given them as well?

Well, that's three of us members in NZ now (that I know of anyway) wonder if there are any more lurking out there?

Bridgette

 

[Kvntoday]

Hi Bridgette / Westie,
The strips cost about $170 for 24 but of course 24 can last a long time , like at least one year but the main thing is that you don't have to got to the local Lab or Hospital and the ring them at night to get your result and I found that the Lab person would give me the dose but not tell me the INR result until I squeezed it out of them as they seem to think that we are a bunch of dummies and don't understand about INR ?? in fact one lab technician said to me late one afternoon that I do not need to know my INR??? so I told her a thing or two!
I am going to find out what make of Valve I have got and will let you know .......Cheers .....Kevin

 

[westie]

internet warfarin control

internet warfarin control

.
hello kevin

thanks for sending me the web address of the nz internet warfarin management system. i had a look, seems all ok to me. and $10.00 per month seems a fair charge.

probably this is the system roache told me was under development in april 2008, but it seems everyone has kept it secret since. neither doctor or cardioligist have commented about it.

i will give this a go; i do not bother recording my doses and just rely on the test readings in my coaguchek. its amazing what you can get away with, my inr is mostly in the range 3 to 4 and i have had no disasters.

but i think i will take advantage of this site so i do not end up pushing my luck too far

westie