HEALTH UPDATE: Bloody Blood, Blood, Blood!

Photo by Anna Shvets

After last week's high score on my INR (International normalised ratio) finger-prick blood test, I breezed into this week's with a smile on my face, inwardly convinced that the radical change in my medication would have put things back on track.

Turns out this week I was below my target range! Although not by anywhere near as much as last week's had been over. Anyway, this necessitated another big change in my daily blood clotting medication, and a return appointment for next week.

Let's hope things can be gotten under control as I'm still concerned about how could affect my planned steroid injections for my osteoarthritis next month. 

But that wasn't my only medical examination this week. I also had my rescheduled eye exam - the one with eye drops and bright lights.

This more powerful procedure than my previous one a couple of weeks ago is called "slit lamp biomicroscopy surveillance". It allowed the medical expert conducting the test to look inside my eyeballs and give me an instant analysis of their condition. Rather than having to wait weeks, as with the earlier test.

Turns out my eyes are okay for a person of my advancing years. I believe there was a slight trace of cataract formation, but I was assured that was normal. And I know, with modern technology, if it does become an issue it can be easily treated.

I also have very small pupils, apparently, which I guess goes with my tiny, evasive, veins that phlebotomists, nurses, and doctors always have fun with when trying to draw blood.

So, that was good. The only drawback with that test was it took me the rest of the day, and a good night's sleep, for my eyes to recover from the eye drops and the extra-bright, invasive, lights that I had to stare, unblinking, into.