Very Frustrated

[Karlynn]

My Mother-in-Law had a partial hip replacement about 3 weeks ago. (She's had 3 full hip replacements and a knee replacement in the last 10 years.) She is now on Coumadin for a while.

When I talked to her last Friday, she said she'd gone the day before and had her blood drawn to check her "blood thinner". I explained that it was called an INR test, to make sure her blood wasn't clotting quickly. (With all her joint surgeries, she's no stranger to warfarin.) I asked what her INR number was and if they'd changed the dose. She said they hadn't called yet. I told her that she needed to call her doctor and tell him that he should be getting her INR # the same day of the test and dose her then.

Well, I talked to her last night and she just happened to mention "Oh, I finally got my Coumadin dose changed today." Finally? I asked her if this was from the test they ran last week. YES it was. Arrrrrggggghhhhhhh!

My MIL is 80 years old and functions pretty well for 80, but when I told her that she needs to hear from her doctor the same day her INR is done, she just kind of "oh well" 'd it. She just figures that if this is what the doctor is doing it must be all okay. (She forgets that she's had 4 hip surgeries because one doctor totally messed up one replacement,making her leg 1.5 inches shorter than the other.)

I know that this isn't any surprise to any of you. And we wonder why warfarin has such a bad rep. I totally believe that if all medical professionals that were managing warfarin patients actually knew what they were doing those horrible experience stories would significantly decrease.

Well, now I'm off to call my MIL to ask her if I can call her doctor and speak to him about her Coumadin management.

Oh, I should also mention that she told me they raised her dose because her blood was "too thick". "Too thick" last week, for all the doctor knows, it could be Jello now.

 

[geebee]

Unfortunately, it's not just warfarin that is mismanaged, especially in the elderly. When my mother first became seriously ill and I started to manage her care, I found bottles upon bottles of medications in her apartment. Many of these medications were extremely dangerous when used in combination.

To this day I kick myself for not making sure her doctor was called on the carpet for her actions. There are way too many doctors out there that give new (and more and more) prescriptions just to shut people up.

I am convinced my mother went downhill as fast as she did due to these meds. She was basically poisoned by her doctor. However, I took over her care when I was still recovering from my last OHS so my main thought was to get her away from this doctor ASAP.

Luckily there are many more educated people these days who do not believe doctors are gods. Your MIL is of the age group that still believes the "god syndrome".

I sure hope medical school has eliminated the "I am a god" classes from their curriculum. If not, there are going to be a lot of doctors needing therapy because "my patients don't understand me".

 

[catwoman]

Karlynn:

Thank heavens your MIL has a very knowledgeable DIL!!!

My husband's co-worker's mother had a stroke 2 weeks ago. I didn't know it until then but she has a mechanical mitral valve. I asked the co-worker this week about his mom. He said her INR was 1.9 when she was admitted to the hospital and it was finally up to 3.1 when she went home.
I suggested to my husband that I could send info about home testing -- doesn't sound like she's testing very frequently. He said she has a couple of children who are M.D.'s and he thought they handled all that.
If so, they're not doing it good enough.

And this wasn't her first stroke, either.........

 

[Ross]

And the saga continues. I swear we are never going to see these things or people on the same page anytime in our lifetimes.

 

[catwoman]

And the saga continues. I swear we are never going to see these things or people on the same page anytime in our lifetimes.

Ross:

Maybe the saga won't have to continue!

I e-mailed my husband link to QAS so he could give to his co-worker for his mom.
Just received this from the co-worker:
<I am going to talk to my family about this. I think it's a good idea to have a home monitor machine. >

 

[Nancy]

Stories like that make me just furious. Elderly people can be so at risk from some of the scalawag doctors out there. They are so taken advantage of. Everyone of them should be assigned a "bouncer" advocate who could "bounce" the doc on his/her knobby little head!

Come on docs that monitor these boards--please, please do right by your patients. Just because they never complain doesn't mean that you can neglect them. You KNOW that you should be calling back the same day with INR results.

 

[Barry]

Stories like that make me just furious. Elderly people can be so at risk from some of the scalawag doctors out there....

It isn't just the elderly. Short version of my usual rant is that if you want good medical care you're going to have to pay attention to what your doc and the nurses are or aren't doing, do some research on conditions and meds, and essentially very politely supervise them. Passive patients are dead patients.

 

[Nancy]

Don't have to do ANY research, I've lived the tale with Joe for over twenty years.

He has fantastic doctors now. However, it wasn't always the case, and even now, if he's out of his immediate care scenario, like the rehab fiasco, things can go wrong and VERY wrong.

 

[hensylee]

Been there, done all that with brother. I keep watch. If you have a helpless family member, somebody better be keeping track. Or they are gone. I am with Nancy all the way.