Recent content by jeffp

Congratulations and hopefully many more to come. Today’s my 19th valvaversary. I can’t say “takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ “ as I no longer hear it. Doc says it’s fibrosis around the annulus and the fat I’ve added over the years with age. Been self testing and managing for most of...

Thanks Tom. Good find. I’ll save the link for when I need more strips. If its still available; I can see a “cease and desist” request possibility in the future. (Yeah, I tend to be a bit of a pessimist when it comes to corporate overreach.)

Yup, what @pellicle said. In the US, Roche limits the sale of its strips to medical providers only. I’m a retired doc and even I can’t get them through my supply house without shipping to a commercial address. Stupid; but when you’re the single source of something, you can pretty much do what...

“Big guns”….”trigger”able….. I see what you did there. Good one. 😁

I’ve been following, but not commenting (until now). What’s been said about warfarin on both sides is true. The surgeons are right in that there are lots of people with risk of bleed out on warfarin. The fact that you’re here and asking questions leads me to think you’d be at the tail end of...

I must not be good at reading flow charts…. If my INR is too high, I’d decrease the dose. Then again, my liver doesn’t read flow charts either. (You need to swap the boxes in the decision tree). 😁

We got some leather furniture some years ago and there was a tag on them saying something to the effect of: “No two hides are the same and each comes with a unique blend of scars, marks, and variations that add to the beauty of high-quality leather”. My wife and I have accumulated a good number...

Holy wow! That fact that you’re here, and able to put together coherent sentences and post them, means the powers that be are looking out for you. You’ve got a long road ahead after your ordeal (what a story to tell). Keep on progressing and sucking on that cursed repirometer. Best wishes...

Welcome Pauly. I think a majority of us here have had some degree of “pump head”. Took me probably 6 weeks to get close to seeming normal to the outside world. Lots of lingering neurological symptoms came and went for 2 years or so. Lots of scans and MRI’s. Some normal, some with “possible...

Wow! Quite the story/adventure. Welcome. We get to be like family after a while (with similar pluses and minuses). Pull up a chair and join in.

Bing! Give that man a cookie. It’s as simple as that. The purchasing person for the hospital gets input from the surgeons and sees what they can get the best reliable stocking at a good price, and goes with that. Price is less of a driver that you’d expect, the difference gets passed along in...

We’ll, duh. If you don’t take yer meds, youse won’t get the desired effect. Yeah, I get it 100%. Very few of my patients on chronic meds had good compliance. I always had them bring their prescription bottles in, and at the end of the 30 days, somehow they frequently seemed to have 10 days...

I thought I was the only one doing this. Many a time I thought I took the meds, but found that it was probably yesterday’s memory. Or I think I forgot to take them, but discovered I did. Likely it’s partly due to getting old, but I tell myself it’s because of being busy and having too much...

Welcome back Praline. I joined about a year before you, so there’s still some classics around. And like you, I moved on for a while and found myself back after a long hiatus. Can’t say exactly what brought me back though. Met some fine new folks; got a bit nostalgic for for some of the...

Just for grins and giggles I put my personal situation into the algorithm chart: 50 y/o at time of surgery, MVR, no other health issues. It’s missing important branches of the decision tree. The options for not at risk of TE are either life expectancy “very short” or “<10-15 yrs”. I’m already...