About blood

The normal INR is typically 0.9 to about 1.1. On warfarin therapy, the INR elevates to between 2 and 3.5.  INR stands for “international normalized ratio”. It is a calculation reported when performing the Prothrombin Time (PT) test for patients who are on Warfarin (coumadin) therapy.  In other words, it is the number by which we live and die when measuring clotting time.

A person with a hypercoagulable condition, such as that often seen in people with various viral disorders, can have sludge-blood with a clotting time hovering around the 1.5 mark if unmedicated, leaving that person sluggish and dull.  This hypoxemic state can cause an addled brain and dry, dying skin which splits, cracks, and greys.  It induces muddled thought and disorientation, slowness of breath, and a condition mimicking a general decline towards death.

As for how much blood a normal body has, one could say that it’s enough to fill one or two one-gallon milk jugs.  Blood accounts for about seven percent of human body weight, and its density is only slightly more than that of pure water.  A person weighing 110 pounds will have approximately 3.3 litres, or 5 pints of blood.

Blood is made up of plasma (which accounts for about 1/3 of its total volume), red blood cells, white bloods cells, and platelets. Vitamins, electrolytes and other nutrients are dissolved in the blood and carried to the body’s cells and organs.  When that blood is thickened by a raging virus, this transmission of nutrients can be delayed, causing havoc in cellular function and disruption in the normal organ activities, such as the heart’s beat and the lungs’ rhythmic intake and outflow of air and carbon dioxide.

Because of my hypercoagulable state, I’ve spent many days unable to work, and sometimes unable to lift my head from a pillow.  My blood has certainly caused many problems — trips to the hospital when it grew too thick and I panted from oxygen deprivation, frantic drives to the ER when a small cut brought forth a gush of over-medicated blood, slow to coagulate, unstenchable.  I’ve cursed my blood; I’ve certain levied many long complaints against it.

Nonetheless, when I found out this afternoon that my brother Kevin, to whom I rarely speak and even more rarely see, lay in the hospital under an oxygen tent in ICU, I called first my sister Joyce and then Kevin’s cell phone.  I heard his voice: “This is Kevin, leave a message” and, laughing, told him that I had been about to say that he didn’t need to collapse to get attention but maybe, come to think of it, he did.  I exhorted him to call me, you silly man, and let me know you’re okay.  I left my cell phone number; I told him that I would call again.

Because, after all, even medicated blood is thicker than water.

The infinity Corleys: Back row — Adrienne, Ann, Joyce, Kevin; Front row — Me, Steve, Frank, Mark

 

 

 

3 thoughts on “About blood

    1. ccorleyjd365 Post author

      Kati, I talked to Joyce. Kev has pneumonia. Hospital in Washington Mo. I will keep you posted.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *