THURSDAY — in the range

Slept in again, but won’t get to tomorrow a.m. because I have an appointment in Cle Elum at 10:45 to see my regular doctor, or as current jargon has it – my primary care physician.  John and I both go to Cle Elum because when I first arrived in Ellensburg the office being touted as the place to go wanted $25 just to have me complete a survey and still would not commit to seeing me.  We like our doctor and so have never thought of switching.  We keep telling him not to retire.

Today, I played the fiddle at a skilled care facility called Royal Vista with the Kittitas Valley Fiddlers and Friends.  We had a lot of people there:   guitars, violins, accordion, flute, clarinet, bass fiddle, and banjo.  One of our group works at Royal Vista and she joined us with both a flute and a guitar but not at the same time.  We interspersed Irish music as we are practicing a few tunes we are not familiar with.  In a prior post I mentioned we have been asked to play at Briarwood, four days before the “wearing of the Green.”    [For fun:  http://www.history.com/topics/st-patricks-day-symbols-and-traditions ] We actually worked on Danny Boy twice because of a resident’s request.  It’s a favorite of many, but seems sad nonetheless, although the meaning and history are somewhat muddled: http://www.karlsenfineart.com/article-Ireland-song.htm

Afterwards I had to go to the Kittitas Valley Community Hospital for a blood draw (supposed to be a standing order) to check my INR for Coumadin dosage.  Of course, when I walked to the laboratory, they had no record of a request, so my wait time increased while they contacted my doctor.  Now I know what to say the next time.

Came on home and never took a nap, but we caught up on emails.  Also had a phone call from my doctor reporting on the blood draw showing an INR of 2.4 which is in the good range of 2.0 to 3.0 for a person taking an anticoagulant and so I continue the dosage of 2.5 mg of Coumadin.

[ This link explains about the test and INR:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prothrombin_time

the next one explains about rat poison, er.,  Warfarin, and Coumadin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warfarin

and the history section in this is interesting.   JFH ]

John’s cooking supper (meat loaf) as I write this.

So for me, each day shows some improvement.  Hope you all are well.

Nancy