This is my new normal. Sitting in the lobby of the Anticoagulation Clinic at the hospital for another INR check to see how quickly my blood clots on the blood thinners I am taking. They are not really blood thinners; that is a misnomer. They don’t thin your blood, they simply prevent it from clotting as easily. It’s my first time here. The registration lady is very nice, despite me being late. Her name is Shelley. Decidedly Shelley. I was answering her questions “yes, ma’am” and she quickly corrected me, noting she is not that old. And she’s not old – probably in her 30s, younger than me. I just default to ma’am and sir with people I do not know who are doing a job or asking me questions. My parents are old school and raised us polite. It’s just one of those lost civility things.
The Coumadin Clinic is busy. This is my first appointment here, but I’ve actually already had my INR checked 2 or 3 times at labs and the FAST ER. It needs to be done every couple days at first. The FAST ER really wasn’t that fast, but at least it didn’t keep me overnight. I have a newfound aversion to hospitals. I really don’t like entering them now.
I am easily 20 years younger than every other patient I see. That’s what happens when your heart tanks at 43, I suppose. You get to be the youngun. Guess I’ve always been an overachiever. My husband is here with me. He has been super supportive, working from home or taking off to make sure I can go to all these doctor appointments – and there are a lot of them.
The pharmacist-nurse-tech fella came out, walked directly to an elderly lady a few chairs down from me, smiled, and asked, “Ms. Mitchell?” I introduced myself and my husband and we followed the fella into his office. The kindly worker’s name was Chuck. Chuck is short for a long and quite lovely African name that he apparently got tired of hearing people mispronounce or struggle with.
The office is a simple affair with a big L-shaped desk and 2 chairs on our side. Chuck asks for The History… again. Everyone has access to my medical records on a very sensibly linked computer system. It’s one of the reasons I am staying within the Sinai Hospital/Lifebridge system. The results of the INR check I am getting done at the clinic today will go there too and instantly be available to my GP, my cardiologist, etc. Yet, every single time I meet with someone new, they ask for The History. You don’t smoke? Hmm. No alcohol? No meat? How unusual. Is there heart disease in your family? Tell me about your parents. And on and on. I know they just want to make sure they’ve got everything correct and in the system; I’m just really tired of talking about it. I don’t even like to think about it.
Kindly Chuck gives me a ton of info about Coumadin and anticoagulation pills and what one can and cannot do while taking them. The Buddhist (my husband and the cook in our family) mentions how challenging it is to avoid Vitamin K in a diet comprised mostly of vegetables. Chuck says that we can ease them back into my diet. We’ll just have to adjust the amount of medicine upward every time I increase leafy vegetables, etc so we can keep my blood clotting number in the right range of 2-3. Last time I was tested, I was at 1.1. My dose was increased accordingly. Today, the finger stick shows I’m at 2.9, which requires another dose adjustment. But I get to wait a whole week before coming back, so that’s happy news.
