Coumadin

I got a call last night from a doctor. My heart started beating again when the doc said Michael was OK but rather he was calling to inform me about adjusting treatment.

Prior to leaving Riverside Community Hospital, M had a special Echocardiogram performed. The technician thought she detected a forming clot in the apex of the left ventricle. I kept repeating this over and over to all doctors at Kaiser, but the report had not yet been received. They repeated another Echo here, but did not see anything. However, they wanted a Kaiser Cardiologist to read the RCH test. We got an 8 disk set of the procedure, and after viewing, Kaiser also agreed they saw an early forming clot.

So....with this new diagnosis, we are going to begin a new Coumadin (Warfarin) therapy. Good, as it should be very successful in preventing future clots, but I have heard that once you are on...you might never go off.  That's kind of a lot to take in.

Lifestyle changes...lots of blood tests and monitoring are in our future. But as I told M this morning, we'll take it as opposed to the other option which is another stroke. We will always need to be aware to avoid situations where he could injure himself and bleed.

We watched the mandatory educational video (while viewing, he made the astute observation that the woman in the video was 20 years older than him...that made me sad)

I would sure appreciate info from anyone who has any personal experience with this drug. I feel a bit overwhelmed by the details right now. It sounds all-consuming...

Ups and downs....all part of the process.

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