In other news, today was my first day learning to use a microINR device, intended to monitor my blood anticoagulation levels. The INR, or International Normalized Ratio, is a measure of how long it takes your blood to clot.

So basically this is what I do:

1. Wash my hands, make sure they’re warm and dry.
2. Take a chip (or test strip) and insert it into the device.
3. The device powers on and I wait until it is ready (it has to heat up to a certain temperature)
4. The device begins counting down for 80 seconds.
5. I take out a a lancet and prick my finger with it.
6. Massage the finger to help form a drop of blood. 🩸
7. Hold the blood drop against the chip/strip allowing blood to flow into the chip’s entry channel (this was the tricky part and I failed the first time, pressing against the chip which interrupted the flow)
8. The device beeps and after some time the INR is displayed on the screen.
9. I note down the INR value and assess my own dosage of Warfarin for the coming week.

After I’ve been able to do four tests that correlate with blood samples taken by professionals I will get my “blood sampling license” and do all this at home and won’t have to visit the clinic as often. Yay!

I’ll still be evaluated once a year, to see if I’m still getting the correct results.