bleeding out

I'm taking call for Friday night for a medical staff member who is deciding whether he has appendicitis or not. Doctors make the worst patients. Instead of going straight to an ER, he is monitoring the evolution of his symptoms over 16 hours. (I've done the same.) For no medical professional wants to be the one to misdiagnose him or herself with the false "hot abdomen." (Needing emergent surgery.) I wonder if bartenders ever avoid drinking in excess in public places to avoid having the server tell them, "Sir, I think you;ve had your limit."

At 0400 I receive a stat lab result, INR 17.
This is one of those "Huh?!" results where one asks the nurse to repeat what she says three times during the conversation.
"Okay, when was his last dose? When and what was his previous INR? And what was that INR today again?"
As if hoping to catch the nurse in misreporting. Wistfully wanting a, "Oh, doctor, I'm sorry. I misread the lab. His PT was 17!"

A PT of 17 needs more coumadin. An INR of 17 needs less.

I've been thinking of getting an online fax service so the nurses can fax me the reports so I can see them myself. (How untrusting you may think.)
That's what I'm thinking, "How untrusting."

This early call better not interfere with my early Panda Express run.