It's me! Born: June 9, 1972
Location: Kansas City, MO USA

Follower of Jesus. Husband of Julianna. Father of Josiah. Musician, artist, filmmaker, reader, writer, thinker.

Other places you can find me:

KC Samoffs
MySpace (personal)
Flickr (personal)
Flickr (Josiah)
YouTube (films and animations)
DoodleBug (drawings)
A Different Kind of Cop (my long-running electronic music project)
A Different Kind of Cop (MySpace)

Tim and His Guitar (listen to some of my singer/songwriter music)

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August 08, 2005 at 2:58 pm

Mortality, part 7

Two things that I may not have to see for a while:

It is hopeful that may not have to visit my hematologist ever again. I mean, he’s a nice guy and all — in fact, more upstanding than a lot of the others whom I see periodically — but not seeing him again will be a very good thing.

The current statistics of a “major bleed” for those on Coumadin are 1% to 2% per year (mind you, these stats are more accurate for the elderly). Since I have heterozygous Factor V Leiden, the chances that I will have another one of these are actually less than that. On Friday, after some Protein C & S Activity tests have been run on the blood that was taken from me earlier today, I will know if I can cease use of Coumadin or not.

Actually, I have been off of Coumadin for two weeks in preparation for these tests (they can’t be done while Coumadin is in my bloodstream). This wasn’t the easiest two weeks to enter into — being on any medication for over a year forces one to think that the medication is a necessity for health and well-being. It’s not like I love medication, though — far from it. It’s just that when every doctor you employ tells you that you need a certain medication, you start to believe them.

Anyway, after speaking with my hematologist today, I feel a lot better about everything. No, a diagnosis has not been determined yet — truthfully, one probably never will. But, knowing that I can safely end the use one of the three pills I take every day makes me feel happy (and even a little more alive).

(Read more entries on my mortality.)