INR quandary

[Cactus52]

Hey all

So I got my new OnX 2 weeks ago and got discharged from the hospital a week ago. I live in Atlanta but had the procedure done at the Cleveland clinic. After my last visit with the docs last Friday my INR was 1.8 so they told me to take 7.5 that day then 5 a day till I get home and have it checked with my cardio there. I am spending time in Cincinnati for a few days and spending a little longer than expected so my cardio called in a order at lab corp to have it checked. I went to 2 different locations today and after multiple sticks and routing around (yay) they could not get a drop. So not sure what to do. Unable to find a place to do a finger stick. Any ideas?? Gonna go and try again tomorrow or should I just wait till the beginning of the next week tillI get home go to my doc?

Thanks

 

[egar]

Perhaps you can find a lab that will do a blood draw. My local clinic does INR tests via blood draws only. Never a problem getting blood with a needle.

 

[Cactus52]

Well it's all moot now. I ended back up in the hospital tonight with severe back pain between my shoulder blades. With that they were able to check it.

 

[Eva]

Well it's all moot now. I ended back up in the hospital tonight with severe back pain between my shoulder blades. With that they were able to check it.

Hope you’re feeling better now. Do you drink water before blood drawings? If not, try to drink enough water before going to the clinic.

 

[Keithl]

Hey all

So I got my new OnX 2 weeks ago and got discharged from the hospital a week ago. I live in Atlanta but had the procedure done at the Cleveland clinic. After my last visit with the docs last Friday my INR was 1.8 so they told me to take 7.5 that day then 5 a day till I get home and have it checked with my cardio there. I am spending time in Cincinnati for a few days and spending a little longer than expected so my cardio called in a order at lab corp to have it checked. I went to 2 different locations today and after multiple sticks and routing around (yay) they could not get a drop. So not sure what to do. Unable to find a place to do a finger stick. Any ideas?? Gonna go and try again tomorrow or should I just wait till the beginning of the next week tillI get home go to my doc?

Thanks

What was your daily dose before the 1.8 reading? Clearly that seems like it needs to be increased. I don't buy that a single 7.5 then 5 every day will do much. Whatever your standard dose was before you got 1.8 you need to increase a bit and stick with that give it 3-5 days and test again. For the first 2 months I was testing twice a week until I was solidly in my sweet spot. For most people testing in less than 3 days will not see much difference due to how long it takes the accumulation of the doses to have impact and stabilize. Leafy greens and a list of other things will cause some swings in INR.

My INR took a while (about 2 months to get into a steady pattern then lived mostly 2.5-3.0 from last July until this February when I had to go off for a Colonoscopy then had a GI bleed. It took about 3 months (until early May) to get regular again until early last month then is began to drop again. I have been within range, but low around 2.2. I like to be 2.5-3.0. My body is slow to adjust to increases in warfarin as it always takes more than 3 days for any does increase to begin to show up and usually longer to really get where it will level off. The only thing I can attribute this to is we make our own salad dressings and use Avocado oil and switch to Unrefined Avocado oil. Avocados do have some decent Vit. K in it and some reports it can interfere with Warfarin. Oddly last week I switch to Olive oil and by end of week was back up a bit. I suspect I may need to adjust my does going forward to see what happens.

One thing I will say is I do NOT agree with alternating doses. Some of these INR folks would tell me alternate between to does and I would just say give me the right pill sizes so I can take the same dose every day. For 7 months I would take 6.75 by taking a 3 and splitting a 7.5. Now I am on 7.5 and will likely go up a little more in another week or so if I don;t get 2.5-3.0 consistently.

 

[Cactus52]

I think I'm still in the finding out mode. I was at 5 a day for a while and it tested at 3.5, then I cut to 2.5 for two days a week and 5 the rest and after 10 days I was at 2.4. I'm trying another 10 days using that method and we'll see where that goes. I've got a machine on order do I hope to have it in a few weeks.

 

[pellicle]

Hi

Colder weather and inactivity combine to give lower circulation at the extremities.

Myself I find doing my INR after a shower in the warm bathroom helps in winter. Also I use this method