Holidays Approaching

[marc_kowal]

OK, so Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching and this will be the first time I'll be on warfarin for the holidays. I eat a fairly consistent diet now and I home test. During the holidays, I plan to show a little restraint when it comes to the eating and such, but for you more experienced folks, how soon after that big day of eating would you test your INR to see how bad you screwed it up? Just curious.

~Marc

 

[dick0236]

Unless you REALLY change your diet, I wouldn't worry much about INR. If you do change your habits around these holidays, you might wait a couple days and do a test.....just to relieve your concern and see if, or how, your INR might change. That will help you build a file about how to treat holidays in the future. Personaly, I've never had "holiday habits" cause any INR problems.....as far as I knew.

 

[coffeelover]

Great thread!
I hadn't really thought about holidays and what the diet change will do to INR. (I'm new to warfarin too.)
I did read something quite awhile ago about cranberries.I don't remember the details about how this fruit affected INR.

 

[lance]

It's best to eat a balanced diet, including cranberries and salads if you like them and test when required. Increased or decreased exercise will affect your INR far more than diet. Try and remember that whatever puts a greater volume of blood through the liver will filter warfarin from your blood. Medications and food supplements are a different matter and must be treated with caution.

 

[catwoman]

OK, so Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching and this will be the first time I'll be on warfarin for the holidays. I eat a fairly consistent diet now and I home test. During the holidays, I plan to show a little restraint when it comes to the eating and such, but for you more experienced folks, how soon after that big day of eating would you test your INR to see how bad you screwed it up? Just curious.

~Marc

I've never worried about it. And never seen anything unusual in my INR diaries over the years.

 

[Cooker]

I have no plans to change my test schedule ... eating what I want when I want has worked for me since 2/21/2006:thumbup:

 

[TheGymGuy]

Cranberries are fine (source: http://www.drgourmet.com/askdrgourmet/coumadin-cranberry.shtml), load up and enjoy. Watch your greens to be about same as usual and everything else will not really make a difference. I go on Thanksgiving like "binges" if thats what you want to call them quite often (need the extra calories at times, ya know ) and my INR stays stable so long as Vit K ration to my coumadin stays about same.

In conclusion, all things being even/same enjoy the holidays!!!!!

 

[Protimenow]

Even if a binge of greens pushes your INR down slightly, there's minimal risk if your INR is low for just a few days. If I somehow binged on green stuff that I don't much like anyway, and my INR dropped below 2, I'd not panic. I'd cut out those greens (and probably already had), eat normally, and dose normally. A few days at the low end of your range shouldn't be a problem.

Being able to self test can be helpful - if you don't obsess about the results.

 

[marc_kowal]

Thanks for all the comments and advice folks! I don't plan on going nuts during the holiday, but there are certain holiday favorites I don't want to pass up on eating, like my wifes spinach and artichoke dip! Thanks again!