Tina wrote:
1: INRs would most likely be done every couple of weeks until the
correct dosages are found, and it's a moving target. Most clinics, I
think, will not be following other values, but I could be wrong about
that. Finger sticks are a lot better than getting stuck in a vein.


Did you read what I said about the possibility of other tests being
ordered necessitating a larger blood sample?

2. Warfarin is in fact a rat poison, it causes internal bleeding.
That's why the dosages must be carefully controlled. One would not
like to trade a block induced stroke for a bleeding one, would one?
Having said that, it is commonly used and very effective.,

Coumadin and any other blood thinner can cause internal bleeding as well
and need to be monitored.

3: Regarding ablation -- look up radio frequency ablation, you'll
discover it's a way of scarring those parts of the heart, or more
often the large vein leading into it, where the electrical impulses
that are triggering the a-fib are starting. Scars don't conduct the
impulses.

I don't need to look it up.

Finally, as I said several times, I am not an expert, he can, as can
you, treat this information as he or you chooses. It may lead to some
questions Chris would like to ask his MD.

Or not.

It's up to him.


And I'm sure he is smart enough to know that. But you're sounding a
little like MX when he Googles something he's totally ignorant of, then
comes on here
expounding like a real expert. This isn't amateur night on a medical
newsgroup.

Cheers