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Rat Poison

Nanci said:
You might like the book "Heft On Wheels- A Field Guide To Doing A 180" by Mike Magnuson. I love it and have read it over and over again.

Nanci
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I'm on the membership committee for the Cleveland Touring Club and had that book sent to me a year or 2 ago and put it on a shelf and never read it. You just inspired me to read it; it is now infront of me on the coffee table.:wavey:
 
Jeesh Dale! Having absolutely no interest in the extermination of rats, I totally disregarded this thread until complete and total boredom, plus this threads continual re-occurrence, demanded I at least open it and take a look. I knew you were a very sick man, but figured it was strictly a mental condition and did not extend into your physical being.

I sincerely wish you well and when you start adding constellations to your gluteus maximus, I want pictures.
 
Dale
------
dirt

= good thing, 'mano =)

Sending thin hugs your way. Less Coltrane, more ragtime/jump methinks...something to keep you beboppin' around. =)
 
Drum Roll, Please.......

....and the number is.......

1.48

Still too low, but getting better. So instead of 5 mgs of Coumadin every day, it's going to be 7.5 mgs, 3 times per week.

Any pharmacology buffs out there who could explain this to me? It doesn't make sense to me to decrease the weekly dosage to around 60 percent of the original script, but I presume the increased dosage amount would make up for that.....is this like a fat soluble vitamin where you can build up a toxic level?

Anyhoo, the good news is that I won't have to have a blood draw until next Monday. But obviously, the injections continue until I get to that INR target range.

Sean - thanks for the heads up on Workrave. I'll check into it.

Chris - I'll hold to that beer next October at the Tinley show. Hey, I might even buy the round, but that's only if the anticoagulants have a side effect of increasing my reach, so I can get to my hip pocket. :grin01:

Nanci - I'll snoop around for the book, thanks. Bear in mind that I was "heft on wheels" when I was actively riding; I'm definitely "Clydesdale Class".

Danny - I'll expect a book report on my desk by Friday. :)

Susan - Understanding that the "ewww" response is like online heroin to me, I'm compelled to tell you that, oh, I have constellations there already.

Or are you specifically looking for hematomas? :crazy02:


Cassandra - I'd normally give you a hard time if you're reducing my life to an equation, but you took the formula right from the horse's mouth.

"Sending thin hugs" absolutely cracked me up. And while I'm still in a "comfort zone" of classical (that's a caricature of the British composer Ralph Vaughan-Williams in the avatar) pieces while I wade through the mindf**k of having my life handed back to me, gimme a week or two; I've been mixing in some neo-swing (Mighty Blue Kings) and ska (Mighty Mighty Bosstones) as of late.

And of course, there's always my Holy Trinity of Van, Dan, and Tom.

(Morrison, Steely, and Waits, respectively.)

----------

So there ya have it. I'm coming out of this, and on the road to stability.

Yeah, yeah, yeah....I know what you're all thinking. Shaddup, each and every one of you. :grin01:

regards,
jazz
 
jazzgeek said:
Still too low, but getting better. So instead of 5 mgs of Coumadin every day, it's going to be 7.5 mgs, 3 times per week.

Any pharmacology buffs out there who could explain this to me? It doesn't make sense to me to decrease the weekly dosage to around 60 percent of the original script, but I presume the increased dosage amount would make up for that.....is this like a fat soluble vitamin where you can build up a toxic level?
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Umm...I'm not sure exactly why doctors prescribe it this way. I do know that sometimes a patient will be on two different strengths on different days and I've always thought it was to keep the most stable (correct) levels of the drug in your blood. I've also seen people take it every third day so your three times a week isn't that far fetched. I know that it is very easy to overdose on the drug in the effect that taking two doses too close to each other can have very bad effects. Not that helpful but I tried :shrugs:

~Katie
 
My guess is that you are supposed to take 5 mg 4 days per week and 7.5 mg the other 3 - thus increasing your dose by more than 20%. Better check on that so that your INR doesn't go even lower and your body turns more shades of blues green and yellow from all the injections! Too bad the Halloween photo contest is over. (Did I really type that!).


Joanna
 
Obviously my experience is of warfarin dosing in hospital, where the INR is checked every 3 days and the dosage adjusted accordingly, so I'm used to seeing 3, 3, 5mg then test again.
You are right that the levels can swing too far, and the warfarin is then omitted for a few days or vitamin k given, but I haven't personally seen it prescribed the way yours is to be taken. Maybe a word with your pharmacist would be in order? usually our hospital pharmacists give warfarin counselling and explain the whole dosage/testing regime to patients before discharge home.
Any recognisable constellations yet?
 
jodu said:
My guess is that you are supposed to take 5 mg 4 days per week and 7.5 mg the other 3 - thus increasing your dose by more than 20%. Better check on that so that your INR doesn't go even lower and your body turns more shades of blues green and yellow from all the injections! Too bad the Halloween photo contest is over. (Did I really type that!).
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Yes, it's verified.

I am a complete and absolute moron. *smacks forehead*

I called, with my figurative tail between my legs, to verify this, and my doctor just kinda chuckled when I asked him, "So, does this change your opinion of me as an intelligent, proactive, and compliant patient?"

I'd tell you his response, but it would break the confidential relationship between doctor and patient.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it. :sidestep:

regards,
jazz
 
jazzgeek said:
"So, does this change your opinion of me as an intelligent, proactive, and compliant patient?". :sidestep:
Click to expand...

I was thinking about that when I wrote my post but held my tongue! Glad it all worked out and hopefully your INR will be 2 soon and you can stop torturing yourself.


Joanna
 
Two Point Four Eight! Who do we appreciate????

COUMADIN! COUMADIN! RAH RAH RAT POISON!!!

Yep, the Coumadin is finally at the target INR levels, so I'm off the Lovenox injections. No more junkie tracks on my belly!!

I go in for the next blood work in two weeks; presuming everything is on track, the interval then goes to every month. After six months (presumably), a new CT scan of the chest, and in a perfect world, the blood clot that's camped out by the pulmonary artery will have been dissolved.

So, there ya have it. Item One on the "Good News" side of the ledger. :)

regards,
jazz
 
Finally! Some good news. :) Glad to hear it and I hope the upcoming tests go well, too. Study hard and I'm sure you'll do fine! :grin01:
 
Dark Side of the moon

Susan said:
Jeesh Dale! Having absolutely no interest in the extermination of rats, I totally disregarded this thread until complete and total boredom, plus this threads continual re-occurrence, demanded I at least open it and take a look. I knew you were a very sick man, but figured it was strictly a mental condition and did not extend into your physical being.

I sincerely wish you well and when you start adding constellations to your gluteus maximus, I want pictures.
Click to expand...


Constellations? Or a total eclipse? :shrugs: Wishing you the best Jazz! :cheers:
 
tsthompson said:
Constellations? Or a total eclipse? :shrugs: Wishing you the best Jazz! :cheers:
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Ooh, yeah, how about some Bonnie Raitt (to go with your rat poison) and maybe some Stevie Nicks...

Good news is awesome! =)
 
If I'm going out, it'll be in a yummy blaze of glory....

....due to my half-Teutonic bloodlines.

No, I'm not talking about "family history". I'm talking about family diet.

Let's review: Coumadin/Warfarin is an anticoagulant. While commonly thought of as a "blood thinner", the viscosity of the blood doesn't change. It basically inhibits a number of "clotting factors", which are basically the proteins that allow clotting/coagulation to take place. This is why the Coumadin levels in the blood need to be monitored; it's like being a diabetic, but instead of monitoring blood sugar and correcting with the appropriate level of insulin, you're monitoring the "clotting factors" and correcting it with the appropriate level of warfarin.

(Cliff Clavin moment: I found a certain pleasant symmetry in learning that warfarin is named in part from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, where its efficacy as a rat poison was discovered. This is the same foundation that's now pioneering stem cell research.)

These clotting factors are very dependent on the presence of Vitamin K, a fat-soluble vitamin that add the chemical "radical" carboxyl to the proteins. Thus, the lower the Vitamin K levels in your bloodstream, the easier it is for an anticoagulant to work, and the higher the levels, the more anticoagulant you need.

Vitamin K is found in a number of vegetable oils, mayonnaise, and dark leafy greens such as the kind you would feed a bearded dragon - kale, collard greens, romaine lettuce, and so on. Cabbage is also high in Vitamin K.

Sauerkraut is made from cabbage.

As a Wisconsin resident of Irish and German stock, do you now see where this is going? Vitamin K is not only in my blood, it's also in my DNA, so to speak.

So tonight's dinner of bratwurst and sauerkraut, while especially tasty, is also walking a thrombotic tightrope, as it were. But I gotta be me. It's all part of being a thick-necked German guy.

One of my credos is, "Everything in moderation.....including, sometimes, moderation."

I'll just have an extra helping of rat poison for dessert. ;)

regards,
jazz
 
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