Coumadin Users....who takes a multi-vitamin?

[Guest]

There are also some long acting pills (not vitamins) that have a wax matrix that is meant to let the drug leach out slowly. The wax does not get digested but retains the original form. These pass through the digestive tract still in the shape of the pill. I'd don't know how many times I have explained this to nurses. There are obviously some pills that have been stamped to hard and don't dissolve but I think the real source of the legend is the undissolving matrix. The story does sell a lot of high profit brands of vitamins in health food stores.

 

[Wendy0716]

Multi Vitamin

Multi Vitamin

Husband is one week post AVR and his INR is still trying to come up. We were told at the Mayo that he could take a One A Day vitamin, making sure there was no Vit K. I purchased the weakest vitamin available, which has no Vit K but Vit E 30 Units. Our GP said no vitamins Hubby's Hgb was 10 and was hoping he could take vitamins long term and thought we should start right from the beginning....so I am not sure which way to go here?

I had a MVR in April and I was having problems stabalizing my INR for the longest time until I realized that the Multi-vitamin I was taking had vitamin K. Silly me never thought to look because before April I had never had to concern myself before. Well after doing some research I found that GNC accutally carries a multi-vitamin that contains no Vit-K. I have been taking it for about 3 months now and my INR is stable.

 

[EVELYN]

We both take BJ's brand that is equivalent to Centrum Silver....buy it in a 500 tab bottle so it lasts quite awhile.....that way when we're running low, we can always find it a BJ's.....Do you have a BJ's club by you?

Evelyn

 

[hayden]

We both take BJ's brand that is equivalent to Centrum Silver....buy it in a 500 tab bottle so it lasts quite awhile.....that way when we're running low, we can always find it a BJ's.....Do you have a BJ's club by you?

Evelyn

I take 1 -A-Day for Men and have had no problems...my inr is 2.9

 

[perkicar]

Hmmm, may have helped me figure this out.

Hmmm, may have helped me figure this out.

this is a good thread for me. I just (literally just, like last thursday) started taking a multivitamin. (One a Day Womens, so there's no Vit K) I also started taking my fish oil pills again for dry eyes. Today when I had my INR checked it had dropped to 2.0.
Haven't reallly changed my diet except I have been stressed the past 5 days with my brother having surgery up at University of Cincinnati. I was taking 5 mg coumadin Su/Mo/We/Fr and 7.5 the other days. My cardiologist wants me to switch and take the 7.5 4 days a week and 5 3 days a week. According to the heparain article I have (sorry Al, I don't have your dosing chart) it says I should go up on my dose 5-15% if my INR is 2.0-2.4. The switch he's suggesting, I'm thinking, maybe isn't enough of an increase? Seems like if I'm at the bottom of the range, I should take the bigger increase (the 15%) which would be 7.5 5 days a week and 5 two days a week. I'm supposed to go back next Monday and get retested.
Comments anyone?

 

[ccrawford]

7.5 mg five times a week plus 5 mg twice a week yields 47.5 mg which is 3 mg more than your current dose or a 6.7% increase. This would certainly be a better choice than the doc's dose which was only .5 mg more. You could even bump it up to 10% if you wanted, but given you plan to test soon, I'd try the 3 mg change and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

It is a very small increase. However, much of the time when someone's INR has been stable and they are about 0.5 units out of line, I just double one day's dose and have them continue the same dose for the rest of the week. Usually they are back in range at the next visit. So, I kinda like Chris"s idea of trying the doctor's recommendation for a week and see what happens.

 

[perkicar]

It is a very small increase. However, much of the time when someone's INR has been stable and they are about 0.5 units out of line, I just double one day's dose and have them continue the same dose for the rest of the week. Usually they are back in range at the next visit. So, I kinda like Chris"s idea of trying the doctor's recommendation for a week and see what happens.

I see your point--I will stick with it and see what we get next Monday.
From what I can tell, Al, the Thera-Tears (oil caps) would have made my INR go up, not down?? FYI, ,my last three tests were 3.0 (lab draw), 2.4 (finger stick), then 2.0 (also finger stick, 3 weeks after the 2.4, no change to my dosing until I got the 2.0)

 

[afraidofsurgery]

Yes I'm a science geek

Yes I'm a science geek

Patty - glad to be of some help. IN what field is your doctorate ?

Sorry for the delay in responding, I went back to work this week and can't even describe how busy it was. Yuk. Made my hospital stay look easy.

My doctorate is in biochemistry from Wash U. Med School in St. Louis. Currently I work for a medical education agency and manage writing projects for drug companies.

Thanks for asking!
Patty