The Chronicles of the Yellow Books

My little yellow books are interesting souvenirs that contain a slice of my life for the past 6 or so years.
This is the tale they tell so far:

Where it all began.
I was admitted to hospital in the evening on 29th may 2009, with severe breathing difficulties.

It turned out to be a DVT and a "saddle" PE.
One hears of folks getting a PE (pulmonary embolism), but only about 1 in 40 turn out to be the more serious "saddle" type.

I was the one in 40 :-)

My treatment pretty much followed the course suggested by Wells, Kapoor and Whelan (2006),
and the treatment was clearly successful :-)
The dose in milligrams is warfarin/Coumadin, a common blood anti-coagulant
Fragmin is an injected blood anti-coagulant (a "Heparin")

By the 23rd of June, I had a confirmed second case of DVT, this time in my thigh, which was confirmed by ultrasound.
So it was off the warfarin/Coumadin, and back on the Fragmin.
The warfarin antidote tastes very much like concentrated Brussel Sprouts(which, happily, I like!)
By mid-August 2009, I am off the Framin (which, remember, I had to inject!), and back on the warfarin/Coumadin

Usual blah, blah. The first entry is the best - my anti-coagualtion monitoring is transferred from the hospital to my local health centre. So much more convenient (it is about half-a-mile from where I live!).

blah, blah

more blah, blah.
no news is good news :-)

The first yellow book having filled up, I am onto the second one.
You can tell I am fairly fit because of the dosage - "standard" range is 5 to 10 mg/day,
and I am on 12 mg/day for the entire page :-)

Dose is heading more towards normal :-)
But then I did lose a bit of weight last Spring (2014)

Oh-oh.
Trouble is brewing.
I went to the local doctor with a "spot" on my leg, underneath the skin, and was referred to the hospital.
You can see the entry in the book for the 18th February 2015, when my anti-coagulation test was brought forwards by a week as earlier that day I had multiple partially-occluding DVTs diagnosed by ultrasound.
My "target range" for anti-coagulation was raised at the same time.
It was 2 to 3, now it is 3 to 4.
The last three readings are all "in spec", so I don't have to have another check for a month
(that is what the "4/52" means - 4 weeks)