T in YVR
Well-known member
I have had a pretty stable INR between 2-3 since my surgery nearly 2 years ago. I only go (slightly) out of range a few times a year - but not by much and not for long. Well, I just went on a trip overseas for 3 weeks and sure saw how quickly it can change. I've been a bit light on exercise lately due to an injury, had a bit of a diet change due to being over in Europe (but none of the vitiation k culprits like spinach, kale, or grapefruit etc - mostly lots of rich French food!, and had the timezone changes re: my dosage and phasing it over to the new timezone).
All I can say is there is no way I could ever test monthly!! (I test weekly at home and brought my Coaguchek with me). I know many people here test monthly - and maybe a person's INR is more stable at lower warfarin doses (?) or older age, but I would go bonkers not knowing what my INR is for the other 29 or 30 days of the month.
I take around 64-65mg weekly. While over there, my INR hit 4.2! I'm so glad I caught it - I happened to cut myself and it was really bleeding steady and not healing up, so I decided to test and found I was at 4.2 - definitely takes longer for things to clot!!. I decided to skip 1 dose entirely, and saw it drop down to 2.8 within 24 hours. I didn't know it could drop so much so fast with a skipped dose.... I kept it stable for the next week, but was then back up over 3.0 and hovering in that area even at a slightly lower dose than usual. Suddenly my "usual" dose was running me well over 3.0....I have had to cut my dose back and am gradually working it back up to what it was as I get back to my exercise routine and diet now that I am home.
Anyways, I don't have any question per se, but just thought I would share my experience for anyone thinking about whether they should consider testing more regularly than monthly. It's not cheap to do, but it truly can be a life saver. If I wasn't so diligent about monitoring/tracking my INR and testing regularly, I could have really shot up even higher.
Tony
All I can say is there is no way I could ever test monthly!! (I test weekly at home and brought my Coaguchek with me). I know many people here test monthly - and maybe a person's INR is more stable at lower warfarin doses (?) or older age, but I would go bonkers not knowing what my INR is for the other 29 or 30 days of the month.
I take around 64-65mg weekly. While over there, my INR hit 4.2! I'm so glad I caught it - I happened to cut myself and it was really bleeding steady and not healing up, so I decided to test and found I was at 4.2 - definitely takes longer for things to clot!!. I decided to skip 1 dose entirely, and saw it drop down to 2.8 within 24 hours. I didn't know it could drop so much so fast with a skipped dose.... I kept it stable for the next week, but was then back up over 3.0 and hovering in that area even at a slightly lower dose than usual. Suddenly my "usual" dose was running me well over 3.0....I have had to cut my dose back and am gradually working it back up to what it was as I get back to my exercise routine and diet now that I am home.
Anyways, I don't have any question per se, but just thought I would share my experience for anyone thinking about whether they should consider testing more regularly than monthly. It's not cheap to do, but it truly can be a life saver. If I wasn't so diligent about monitoring/tracking my INR and testing regularly, I could have really shot up even higher.
Tony
