When you HAVE to go off Warfarin and onto Clexane

Have a look at my other sites on warfarin!!!

Blog on how to manage warfarin tests for trarvellers

Blog on warfarin testing

A blog about this site on warfarin

Web pages on warfarin for travellers

Yes, it can happen. After years of being on warfarin, I had to undergo some plastic surgery to remove a skin cancer just under my eye, and to do this, I had to go off warfarin for a week, so that I would not bleed badly and effect the operation or the healing of the wound.

In the past, I had been taken off warfarin for three days for other matters, but a week caused my GP some concern, and so he said, well we will just use Clexane.
I had no idea what this was... it turns out it is a daily injection. I assumed he would do it - but no, you do it yourself. Shock horror.

Well in a nutshell, it is not as bad as I feared. There are lots of YouTube videos with people injecting Clexane (for example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4YtO7K2vkcI ). Do a search, and you will find it valuable, and it will give your confidence a lift.

The injections are a bit horrific the first time or two, and you certainly can get bruises - one of the videos says to introduce the needle very slowly, and inject slowly - this I did not try, and perhaps should have. On injection, there is a stinging sensation for about 15 minutes, but no great hassle.

Clexane contains the active ingredient enoxaparin, which is a type of medicine called a low molecular weight heparin. It is used to stop blood clots forming within the blood vessels.

What is this site all about?

Firstly, let me start off by saying that I have been on warfarin for many years, and that whilst I have no medical training, I have an extensive scientific training and experience and so can

 interpret most of the information available.

It is the purpose of this site to provide information to those who have been prescribed warfarin,

looking in particular at:

• Why you might have been prescribed warfarin

• What exactly is warfarin?

• How does it work?

• How do they measure your INR (the level of warfarin in your blood -

                                 or rather the effect of taking warfarin on your blood)

• How accurate are these measurements?

• How do doctors determine changes in your dosage?

• Changes in INR dosage - a warning

• What problems might you encounter on warfarin?

• What other options are there for measurement of INR?

• What other coagulants might be prescribed?

Each of these questions is addressed on separate pages in this blog

 -see the side bar for links.