July 28: P.S.

My INR, for some unknown reason, is once again out-of-whack. It's too low at 2.2, meaning increased chance of blood clots on the valve. So taking 20 mg of coumadin a night for the next couple nights. This will probably make it too high. So for the next several days, probably a week, I'll have to test every night. I've gotten past the psychological trauma of swallowing the pills every day, but the testing always brings the terror to the front of my mind. Am I about to have a stroke? Start spontaneously bleeding? Fortunately, I have the home INR monitor, which matched the lab value perfectly. It keeps me from getting whacky with worry.