It was an INR (see my brief guide) test day today. It’s been 5 weeks since the last test so I had no expectation of it being correct. It is never consistent and over the past few tests, it has been rising. So I was fully expecting it to be ‘out of range’. My range is 2 – 3.5 with an overall target of 3. This means my safe blood clotting range is between 2 and 3.5 with an ideal clotting value of 3.

I was expecting the value to be at least at the top of the range but quite possibly over the maximum. What I wasn’t expecting was the value to be lower. I could never imagine it to be as low as 1.3.

The nurse who regularly does the test looked quite worried and decided to repeat the test. But it came back the same! She decided that in cases like this, I would need to have injections of Heparin to ‘keep me safe’ and get the INR value back to where it should be.

So, the medication was quickly prescribed, and a nurse was assigned to explain and show me how to take the injection. I have never self-injected and so it was a bit of a concern. But it was not painful and I am confident I will be able to manage. It only going to last for 5 days and by then, hopefully, I will be back on track.

We have no idea why the value was so low. The tester asked all the usual questions: had I missed a dose, was I taking supplements, was I on any other medication. All were a ‘no’ and the only thing different about this past two weeks was that K**h and I have cut down on alcohol. It seems that could have been the cause. But I don’t know.

The downside to the morning was that instead of it taking 10 – 15 minutes for the procedure, the whole thing took nearly 2 hours. Which included having to go to another pharmacy to pick up a special box to put the used syringes in!