I've been on Warfarin for many years, and only need to test once a month. My Cardiologist tried shifting me to Pradaxa. It went fine, for a while, but after about 3 months, I developed - for the first and only time in my life - insomnia. Went off the Pradaxa and back on the Warfarin and the insomnia went away, along with some muscle aches that had come on so gradually that I didn't really notice them until I no longer had them.
My cardiologist will give me enough lab orders for testing that traveling around the country and using a chain of labs like Lab Corp shouldn't be a problem. The problem will be traveling in Canada. Canadian labs will not honor a US Lab Order, only one written by a Canadian Doc. PITA!
