Warfarin & Inr

[dunnitall]

I know someone who takes Warfarin and the info I get from her very often is she has received "bad news" from anticoag clinic as her INR reading isn't good and was told she will have another stroke! She had one some years ago but got over it thank goodness. However I feel she is making a mountain out of a molehill with this "bad news" business every time her readings are different. Am I being unkind thinking she's milking it for sympathy?

She won't go to her local hospital or her doctors for the anticoag, instead she goes to a London hospital, a 40 min train ride once a fortnight for her bloods to be taken. That puts my back up already as they have told her she can have it done locally but she won't.

She has twice in the recent past thought she'd had a TIA, waited until the FOLLOWING DAY to do anything about it but again not locally. She travelled by train with a long walk from the station to A & E in the London hospital she attends to tell them about the TIA!!! They sent her home (by train!).

I'm loathe to think I was being unkind in my thoughts about all this. Do INR readings stay steady all the time or do they indeed fluctuate and one is usually told "bad news you will have a stroke" because of it as this person maintains happens to her? I just wondered what others think here.

[Traci66]

INR readings do fluctuate, but usually results come through the post the day after the test has been done with the new dosage that is to be taken daily written in the yellow book, the only times they ring is if the reading has been exceptionally high or low, but no, I don't think they would mention a stroke.

[bednobs]

they are more likely to have said she is at risk of a further stroke (for example if the INR is low)
As traci says, inr levels do fluctuate and can depend on what you are eating/drinking, how much exercise you are doing plus are also dependent on you taking the correct dose of warfarin as advised.
As an example, I take it and My target inr is between 2-3 I had a period for 3 years when the dose always remained the same, and the interval between blood tests was extended to 10 weeks. However, on one of the routine BT's my INR had fallen (probably due to a change in diet) and since then its been all over the place, and i'm having to have tests every 7-10 days :(

[Sqad]

\\\\ she has received "bad news" from anticoag clinic as her INR reading isn't good and was told she will have another stroke!\\\

That is what she SAID the clinic told her, what they actually said was probably something quite different.

She clearly has confidence in one particular hospital, for her own reasons and why not? Confidence in your medical team is very important in the management of most disorders.

No......I don't think that she is necessarily making a mountain out of a molehill and I do not think that she is milking it for sympathy.

Unfortunately today with the advent of links and the internet, medicine has become a "tick box" science, as in fact it is a very personalised subject.

[dunnitall]

Thanks for your answers one and all. My OH feels she is milking it as she has seemed to do with other health problems she has, I just wondered if they would actually say to her 'well it's bad news you could have a stroke anytime now' as my OH reckons they wouldn't dare. She has never liked the local hospitals because of what she reads in the papers and what has gone wrong there at times (as in most hospitals nowadays...nowhere is perfect) and I still cannot fathom how if anyone needs A n E they will wait until the next day to seek help over 20 miles away. Surely accident and emergency services are for just that, she could have seen her the doctor next day couldn't she?

Her and her OH will not entertain anything to do with computers or the internet so she wouldn't know about looking things up. I don't want to be unfair as I said but it does seem far fetched to us both esp my OH who says she's a fraud!!

Thanks for your comments though, much appreciated.

[jennyjoan]

Dunnitall - I would let the lady do as she pleases. It is suiting her and she is not asking for anyone to take her to these hospitals.

[Gromit]

Sqad,
Don't know how long you have been back, but I have only just noticed. Welcome back.