I’m getting closer to my doctor’s desired INR for me. I’m now at 1.99, and he would like to see me between 2 and 3 (but closer to 2). I’ll stay on 10 mg of coumadin a day for now, to see if that gets me to 2.

We had a tornado in the area today. I didn’t know about it until I arrived at the clinic and saw that the lobby was virtually empty. They cleared people out as a precaution. It turns out the tornado was just passing by. It didn’t touch down.

I’m up to 10mg of coumadin a day now. The 8mg dose got my INR to 1.20, and Dr. Orlowski wants it to be between 2 and 3 (closer to 2). I’ll be tested again on Wednesday to see how the 10mg dose is doing. I’m taking coumadin as a preventative for deep vein thrombosis (DVT), which is a possibility for anyone taking thalidomide. There’s more information about DVT at www.dvt.net.

I haven’t been sleeping very well lately. After a few days, it takes its toll, so today I took a xanax about noon and then slept from 1:00 until 5:00. It was fantastic! I fell asleep with the TV on and the notebook computer open on my stomach.

I just remembered something kind of funny. When I saw Dr. Orlowski, he asked me if I vacuumed my ears. Huh? He said I had the cleanest ears he ever saw.

Dr. Orlowski put me on coumadin as a preventative for deep vein thrombosis. One of the requirements of being on the drug is weekly testing to make sure the blood is at the desired International Normalized Ratio, or INR. An INR of 2.5 to 3.0 indicates the appropriate dosage. I’ve been enrolled in a Coumadin Clinic to keep tabs on my INR. My first blood draw will be tomorrow. For a while, I’ll report to the Coumadin Clinic at least weekly to have my INR monitored. I’m used to having lots of blood drawn now. I’d estimate that I’ve had at least 30 venipunctures since January!