Bedrest

Today is the first full day of bedrest.  The only reason he is allowed up is to use the restroom.  One of his former students popped in for a minute today and said he was amazed...he has never seen Mr. Penrod still for so long.

Mr. Penrod is definitely not enjoying being still for so long, believe me!  The good news is, the swelling in his foot and leg has gone down tremendously.  To my untrained eye, I would say he has no swelling at all.  That is a very good sign that things are improving.  But the indicator that the medical people are looking at is the INR.  I asked what INR stands for and the person I asked could not remember what the N stands for but it is "International 'something' Ratio".  Some other medical people reading this blog may be able to fill in the "N" for us.

What it is...it indicates how well the blood is clotting.  The lower the number, the more it clots.  The goal is to have it not clot so much so they want the INR to 2.0-3.0.  This morning, Geoff's INR was 1.0

No one can say how long it will take to get up to 2.0.  Everyone reacts differently...some people change quickly, some slowly.  It appears Geoff's number will be changing slowly, but who knows!?

So, he is getting a shot of lovenox (twice today) and a pill of Coumadin (1 today at 5:00)  Another blood test in the morning will determine how much Coumadin tomorrow.

His attitude is pretty good, really.  He is disappointed that this happened because he was doing everything the doctor said (as far as walking, etc) and he is getting bored, I'm sure.  He was glad to have a few visitors today (besides me:-)

So, just hoping for positive change in the INR tomorrow!