Joshua's Posts

Thank you to everyone that has filled out the survey so far. I have almost 200 responses! If you haven't already, please tell me what your experience has been! I am a current warfarin user, and I developed a survey to find out the needs of the warfarin community, besides myself. From the survey, I hope to create a tool that will help us better manage our daily needs and the challenges associated with warfarin use. The survey takes about 5 minutes and will ask about your experiences as a current or past warfarin user, or those experiences as a caretaker of someone on warfarin. You can take the survey at https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HeartValveSurgery . Please address any questions to me at HealthyINR@gmail.com.

I think that doctors and surgeons do a great job at preparing us for the physical changes we go through as heart valve replacement patients. But, somehow, I feel like they often-times do not adequately stress the mental and lifestyle changes required by such a surgery. I'm pretty sure most people go through a small "funk" after heart surgery. But what makes the funk more daunting is the warfarin medication. As I was adjusting to warfarin, I had a lot of difficulty figuring out my management system for my dosage. I was taking 5mg, 7.5mg, 7.5mg, then repeat. Thus, it was super hard to manage when every week was different. I first texted myself when I took my meds with my dosage so that I could keep track. But that was even too hard, so I just changed my own dosage to 7.5mg every day. Then adjusting to the diet changes, the low-sodium recommendation, and the regular blood checks were all daunting. I decided to take things into my own hands and figure out what our community needs and develop a survey. Any prior or current warfarin user, or a warfarin user caretaker can take the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HeartValveSurgery . It's 5 minutes and I hope to create a tool to make our lives seriously easier. Thank you for everyone that has supported me so far, and I look forward to being active in the warfarin user community.