Tuesday 5 January 2010

Anti-coagulant Clinic

Had my first appointment today at the clinic and had to be education in the proper use of Warfrin and the does and dont's of taking it. The worse thing i heard was it can have a hair loss side effect (OMG!!!!) But i hope this will never happen. Been warned against drinking either cranberry or grapefruit juice and eating too much red meat and green veg, luckily i don't do any of them anyway. I hear that some people get excessively tired and feel the cold more in their bones as well but i feel these things anyway from other medication so nothing should change?? Well hope not, but it's tough if it does anyway. Had my blood taken for a baseline result and my INR result was 1 and the aim is to get it between 2-3 and i'm starting on a low dose Warfrin 3mg with Clexane 95mg for 3 week overlap. But i will need to have a blood test everyweek at the GP's to test it, as it can go up and down and be erractic. And then they can adjust my dose accordingly if needed. Been sent home with 28 1mg brown tablets and 28 3mg blue tablets so i can pretty much make up any dose i need too. It needs to be taken last thing at night so if the blood test is took in the morning and the results come back and you need to change the dose, then you wouldn't of took the dose already for that day. So today must start and i will be keeping a little journal in my diary of it, to see if there is any changes or effects going on.

Still can go to Hydro as i've asked pretty much everyone beforehand, and it's only for half an hour as well. It's a fine balancing act between resting the leg and keeping it moving in order to retrain and work the muscles. I can only hope the bone has started to grow now that i'm getting treatment for the DVT. Must wear the stockings more as well worse luck as i want to prevent the lasting damage the DVT will cause.

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