Home testing awareness

[zipped]

As I generally am only a viewer I make an exception today to comment on how I am still AMAZED at the lack of knowledge by most labs/Er personnel/and practitioners regarding home testing. I have home tested for 15 years and found this site to be the educator that excels. I continually run into puzzled looks when I mention this subject. A recent visit to an ER was no exception as the nurses had NO clue when I mentioned I home tested! So little progress in all these years..no education provided I assume. We can all be VERY thankful for this site and the members who share their knowledge! I learned it all right here and still check in. I was the 1st "Zipper" back in 1998/99 but had to change my name. Anyone remember me? Janie? BillieO? I hope you're all doing well and having wonderful holidays. I'm not here often but always grateful you are! zipped

 

[tom in MO]

I found that many older people or people with older family members are familiar with home INR testing. This is due to the other illnesses that require anticoagulant therapy.

 

[pellicle]

Hey Zipper

Pleased to make your acquaintance

Always good to see an "old timer" drop by

The issue of warfarin management is vexing, it shows to me how non mainstream this is, and sadly even within the professional speciality ignorance abounds.

I have taught myself more in two years than many professionals (so called) seem to know.

Sad isn't it

 

[LondonAndy]

Here in the UK, in September 2014 our national regulator recommended home testing for certain conditions in preference to going to clinics because of the comparable quality of test results and massive reductions in strokes etc which the closer monitoring enables. This was just as I left hospital from my own replacement mechanical aortic valve surgery, and having a high-pressure job I wanted to self-monitor as soon as possible, both for convenience and improved management.

Currently we have to buy the machine (I have a CoaguChek XS) and then test strips and Warfarin are provided on prescription. I test weekly, and send results every month to a hospital anticoagulation clinic who officially manage my doses (though in reality, having researched Warfarin management online I am self-managing when occasionally needed) and I go in once every six months for a comparable test at the clinic.

I am the only person that my GP knows who is doing this, and the medical practice probably has over 15,000 patients it serves. The hospital anticoagulation clinic also seems to have only a few self-testers, but there are now posters advertising the option to patients. As many people on Warfarin are quite elderly they may not be as receptive to self-testing as younger patients (my mother is an example), or indeed be able to do so, but there are so many advantages to it for both patient and health service I am sure awareness will improve and self-testing will become more widespread.