where would you like to be…? part 2

Today’s the last time I have to go to the surgery to have my INR measured.  About 6 weeks ago I blipped the arrival of this device, which should, in time, enable me to cut the umbilical with the practice nurse and allow me to take responsibility for measuring my INR - at home - or on holiday.   Scary - but essential, in my view, if I’m to take back control of my life.

Over the past 6 weeks I’ve sat alongside the practice nurse while she took a blood sample and measured my INR on her device and then, while she watched, I took another sample using my own device.  Each time the results were identical so the surgery is happy that my device is accurate - and that I know what I’m doing.

I’m the first person in my GP’s surgery to measure my own INR, so there’s a lot of interest in how it works out.  Although NICE (National Institute for Health & Care Excellence) are encouraging people on long-term anticoagulant therapy to be able to do this for themselves if they wish - and are physically and mentally able - the responsibility still lies with the GP.  So if I mess up, he carries the can.  I’m lucky to have a supportive GP.

I’ll take another reading in two weeks time, phone the surgery with the results and they’ll work out my warfarin dose.  Eventually I hope to be able to calculate my own dose.