So much for increasing the regularity of my posts. I think it must have been the ‘double’ post on the 8th that upset things. Joking aside, not much has really happened over that past week. Did a couple of short walks but nothing spectacular.

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I had my Warfarin review on Wednesday. Now I think this is a silly idea. Because it is a controlled drug or POM (prescription only medication) the law says I have to have a review every 12 months. After my operation, the the surgeon explained that I had been fitted with a metal valve and as such I would need to take an anti-coagulant (ie Warfarin) for life. My GP confirmed this during my first appointment with him, a week after leaving hospital. It was also explained to me when I had my first INR blood test. So why do I need to have a review? Nothing has changed. I still have the replacement valve and it’s not going to go away. I don’t really see why I need a review. I did ask the GP at the time of the review, but he was very non-committal and answer. However, he did come up with a new idea!

Every so often, I have a blood test in which a phial of blood is taken from a vein in my left arm (a venous draw) . This is then sent to the Anti-Coagulation Clinic for analysis. I get the results, typically two days later. The new idea is to do the testing at the GP surgery. Basically I will have a pin-prick test, like the blood sugar test and the results would be available within minutes. It will still take ten minutes to do the test, but it would cut down on a lot of other time.

I have to book a special session with the lead clinician on this, but it sounds like a great idea.

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So that’s about it for the past week. Lets see what the next one brings.