Snow Day

I have good news, my INR finally reached the 2.0 threshold and surpassed it! I went in to the clinic a week ago and my test came back at 2.5. I am grateful that my blood has started to cooperate with the Coumadin. Now I have been cut back to monthly visits to the INR clinic for dosage check-in. I am currently taking a combination of 7.5 mg on some days and 10 mg on other days. It seems like a high dosage to me, but I am not sure. I have started investigating the medication a little more. I have been unsure if my physical and emotional state can be attributed to the medication or not. All the docs and nurses say there are no side effects, but, ironically other Coumadin users have noted that it is also used as rat poison. Now, how can that not have side effects on humans if it is used to cease rat mortal existence? Huh, I will have to continue to ponder on that one!

In my newest, minimal, researches I have looked up med information on www.askapatient.com. It is really interesting to read what other people have to say about their condition, side effects, length of use, age and gender. It helps me to not feel so alone! There are quite a few posts from women in their mid-20s. I would also have to say that the demographic postings could be a bit skewed since younger generations are more prone to go to the Internet for medical research than older generations. At first glance on the Coumadin posts you could easily generalize who most commonly uses the medication, but that wouldn't be a fair interpretation. I would create a link to the Coumadin information and post on my blog but it does search links and not static links. On the right column is a link to askapatient.com. You can type in Coumadin and the click on the posts. The generic version of Coumadin is called Warfarin, which is what I take due to insurance coverage on generics. Funny though, no one posted anything about rat poison on the Warfarin pages.

Now, for the explanation of this post's title. My work declared the day a snow day and we were let out at 2:00. I took the luxury of going home and laying on my couch and watching movies. What a nice opportunity for me to just relax, which I rarely rarely ever do. I had planned on going to karate class tonight and finding out about the possibility to test for my purple belt. I know the katas, goshins, etc. but just don't have quite the confidence to perform like I need to for the test. I also have the issue of bruising really easily and bleeding. I still have bruises from the needles last week and a couple of large spots on my legs that I have no idea what I hit. That, in itself, is a bit peculiar and worrysome to me. I am naturally clutzy but I have to be so much more aware of what I accidentally bump into, slip on, carry, etc. I do hope that this doesn't interfere with my karate training more than I can control. I have spoken with my Sensei and he has okayed me to limit my hand to hand fighting and focus on individual training and katas. He he, got off on a tangent - class was cancelled tonight because of the snow.

Here I sit, catching up on my blog and procrastinating my inevitable homework. I started a new semester at St. Scholastica this week. I will not have many moments to spare. In some ways I am taking advantage of the change in plans and just having a good time with myself. Signing off and hoping to watch another movie before the night is over.