He was about 35, wearing an Enyce velour suit and an worn leather Raiders jacket. He was in the same predicament I was, he had "the clots." (Blood clots.) I wasn't in a velour suit, though I wondered if I might be more comfortable had I been. I was in a black, dot wool coat and jeans with a purple pattern scarf around my neck. No, I was comfortable enough.
"You here for your Coumadin check?" He asked.
We were at the family medical center to get our fingers pricked to make sure our blood was good, both thinking it was probably going to be too high. See, we are going for numbers between 2 and 3. Last time mine was a 3.6 and last time his was too high as well.
"I sure love my vegetables! Can't eat 'em. I love greens. Can't eat collard greens," he lamented.
You have to watch your diet when you are eating the rat poison, Coumadin. If you eat too many greens your blood numbers will be too low, your blood too thick. If you were to have a shot of whiskey or glass of tea, your numbers would be too high, too thin.
Both of us had to be to work soon and there were two ladies in wheel chairs in line ahead of us, along with a pregnant woman and a woman who had already been there for three hours getting other tests.
"Hurry it up folks!" Enyce grumbled. "They need more nurses 'round here."
"I miss cranberry juice," I related.
"Oh yah, I had some of that yester...Oh shit!" He said. "It's going to be high. And I had tea this mornin'. Damnit, why do I keep messin' it up."
"Hmmm..." I mumbled. "This is my last week!"
"Watch that. They'll get ya." He warned. "I was off it for a while too and they put me back on."
The nurse called my name, "Elizabeth?"
She pricked me and squeezed my middle finger until she had enough.
Reading, 2.9.
That'll do! On my way out I waved bye.
Oct. 22 is the last day I take Coumadin, hopefully.
I guess there is no promise that I will never have to take it again. But the outlook is good and the end is near. It has been six months since I had a good dose of whiskey, a glass of cranberry juice or a nice big helping of broccoli. And if I so desire, I can get in on those collard greens as well. Perhaps I should have asked for his recipe.
