For the second week in a row, my INR has been in the therapeutic range (between 2 and 3). Each week I’ve been to the clinic to have my blood tested to see how I’m doing on Coumadin, which was prescribed to me to help prevent DVT (deep vein thrombosis), which is a possible side effect of one of the drugs I take (thalidomide). My current Coumadin dose is 12.5 mg/day M-W-F and 10 the other days. I haven’t noticed any adverse side effects from Coumadin at all. Now I get to skip a week of the blood testing. Next time I go in, I’ll take pictures of the testing process so you can see what it’s like (if they’ll let me).
Something strange came up last night. I found an HLA test kit that was sent here from Duke for my brother. It was never used. I opened it to look at it, and saw the empty tubes. When I removed them to look at them, I noticed 2 tubes of someone’s blood underneath! Yikes! Now I’m not sure what to do. Should I just throw it all away? I don’t think so. I think there are laws about disposing of blood like that. I guess I will take them with me next time I go to the clinic here and ask them to get rid of it for me.