Fun with Coumadin

Because I was crazy busy last week I totally spaced testing Evan's INR. I do the test every other Friday at home. The machine is very much like a glucose monitor but it takes more blood to run the test. It is a great measure of the trust that Evan's Cardiologist has in me as a parent that I am able to do this at home instead of having to go into the office and have them do it.

Today Evan's numbers were high. This is something that has never happened before. They have come up low and I then will have flashes of Evan having another stroke. His medication will be adjusted upward and then the next test is usually fine. Evan's numbers being high presents a whole new problem. I have flashes of him tripping, falling and scraping his knee which then proceeds to bleed for a really long time. Or I have visions of being in a car accident and Evan being injured in a way that would not normally be fatal but because of his high numbers he bleeds out in an incredibly short amount of time.

Because of my overactive imagination we stayed at home in where things are padded. Evan was not happy about that. He loves being outside, looking at cars, going shopping and other things that do not involve staying at home all day. I hate that I have to feel this way, that I have to feel so protective of him. I know that things happen that are out of my control. I don't want to be overprotective of Evan and turn him into a creepy child that has no social skills and lives with his mother when he is 40. I want him to be able to grow up as a strong confident child..... a strong confident child that knows enough to take care of his health and will stay safe at home when his INR is too high.