The Anonymous Widower

Getting To The Bottom Of My INR Results

Since the start of the hot weather my INR results have not been troublesome but just a bit wayward.

To get a hold on it, I have been testing my INR every day from the 1st of July.

Normally, I take a dose of 4 mg of Warfarin every day and this keeps my INR at around 2.5.

But in the hot weather the INR was drifting towards 2.0, so I was using a dose of 5 mg every so often to nudge it upwards.

I was also drinking heavily in the hot weather, but nothing was stronger than 0.5% alcohol Adnams beer, which I know doesn’t affect my INR and to my body, it is gluten-free. Most of the other drinks were still lemonade, tea and water.

I came to the conclusion, that the water was being boiled out of my body by the heat.

At least, the INR only hit 2.0 a couple of times and never went below it.

On the 14th of September I had the decompensation stroke, I wrote about in I Had A Decompensation Stroke On Saturday.

This is my INR values and Warfarin dose since that day.

  • 14th September – 2.2 – 5
  • 15th September – 2.2 – 5
  • 16th September – 2.2 – 5
  • 17th September – 2.3 – 5
  • 18th September – 2.7 – 4
  • 19th September – 2.9 – 4
  • 20th September – 2.6 – 4
  • 21st September – 2.7 – 4
  • 22nd September – 2.7 – 4
  • 23rd September – 2.5 – 4
  • 24th September – 2.6 – 4
  • 25th September – 2.6 – 4
  • 26th September – 2.6 – 4
  • 27th September – 2.7 – 4
  • 28th September – 2.9 – 4
  • 29th September – 2.8 – 4
  • 30th September – 3.3 – 3
  • 1st October – 2.6 – 4

Note.

  1. I usually measure my INR, when I have a bath at eight in the morning.
  2. I usually take my Warfarin around three in the afternoon.

I do this so that I don’t test my INR too close to taking the drugs.

Note too how the INR rose on the 28th of September and stayed high or higher for two days.

I don’t think I ate anything that would cause the INR to rise and the weather was getting more humid. So was that the cause, or was it the fact that I had a hair-cut on Friday night?

Why should I blame the haircut? After I came out of hospital my hair looked like Einstein’s and it felt very dry.

So do I normally lose water from my body through my hair? Trying to find a connection on the Internet is a nightmare, as they assume I’m asking about hair loss.

I’m not worried about myself, but suppose you are having regular INR tests in hospital every few weeks.

Would a false reading mean that you ended up on the wrong dose?

Conclusion

I will continue to test my own INR, as I feel it is easier.

October 1, 2019 Posted by | Health | , | 2 Comments

Boeing Left Safety Features Off MAX Jet

The title of this post is the same as that of this article in today’s copy of The Times.

It appears Boeing had a similar problem to that on the Boeing 737 MAX, on the KC-36A Pegasus, so they fitted an MCAS system.

This paragraph in the Wikipedia entry gives full details.

On 22 March 2019, the USAF announced it was reviewing KC-46 training after the Boeing 737 MAX groundings, as the KC-46 uses a similar Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) to that implicated in two 737 MAX crashes. However, the KC-46 is based on the Boeing 767-2C and its system takes input from dual redundant angle of attack sensors; it will disengage with stick input by the pilot. The Air Force stated that “The KC-46 has protections that ensure pilot manual inputs have override priority” and that it “does not fly the models of aircraft involved in the recent accidents” and that it is “reviewing our procedures and training as part of our normal and ongoing review process.

Note that there are dual redundant angle of attack sensors and the pilot takes control from the MCAS system, in the traditional manner.

These two features are not fitted on a 737 MAX.

Was the cost too great to maintain sales?

October 1, 2019 Posted by | Transport/Travel | , , , | Leave a comment