How late is too late?????

[perkicar]

I was gone all day today and just now realized that I forgot to take my coumadin!!!!! ruh roh! I normall take it between 5 and 6 pm. It's 10:15 pm. I should just take it now, right, and then get back on my "regular" schedule tomorrow? I'm sure this sounds like a dumb question, but thought I would still ask!! LOL

 

[Karlynn]

You should take it. Not that much time has passed.

 

[Ross]

Get your glass of milk and take it like a big girl.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

What you (probably) want to avoid is taking a Double Dose at the same time, altlhough Al Lodwick has said that even a single day with a double dose is 'probably' not going to have a negative result.

There have been a few suggestions for dealing with missed doses. Up to 12 hours, just go ahead and take the dose and resume your normal schedule.

One idea was to divide the missed dose over the next 3 days.

If I miss a dose, I like to take something as soon as I realize it. Another approach I have used is to add the missed dose plus the next 3 days and somehow spread that total dose over the next 3 days. Sometimes I take part in the morning and part in the evening to avoid taking a large amount at one time.

Bottom Line: any technique that results in the same total dose over 4 days should be OK and spreading the missed dose over the next 2 or 3 days avoids the (small) potential risk of taking a double dose at one time. (Can you tell I'm an engineer?)

'AL Capshaw'

 

[bvdr]

I can only think of two times when I wasn't sure if I had taken my coumadin or not. One was a day last week. My plan for my weekly dosage was to be 29mg rather than the 28 I had been on for the past couple of months. My INR had been hovering around 2.5 and I like it in the higher end of my range. The plan was for taking 5mg on Monday and 4mg for the rest of the 7 days. On Tuesday I couldn't remember if I had already taken it or not. So I took 2mg instead of 4mg figuring that at the most I would be at 31mg for the week and the minimum 27mg. I usually fill my containers for the week when I test but had broken my routine for some unimportant reason. I must have taken it because yesterday I was 4.4 which actually I'm quite comfortable with but this week I'll be back down to 29mg and see how that plays.

If I knew for sure I had missed a dose then I would have taken it as soon as I remembered unless it was near the time of the next dose and then as Al mentioned, I would have divided it over the next couple of days to have my weekly amount correct.

 

[Guest]

Just about any way that you take it to "make up" the dose is better than skipping it. You are safer with a slightly high INR than a very low one. I disagree with those patient information things that say to not try to catch up on a missed dose. They are just not rational.

 

[perkicar]

Just about any way that you take it to "make up" the dose is better than skipping it. You are safer with a slightly high INR than a very low one. I disagree with those patient information things that say to not try to catch up on a missed dose. They are just not rational.

That's what I figured. I took it around 10pm last night, and got back on schedule today.