Low INR: Olive Oil, Peanut Butter, Walnuts to blame?

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Karlynn:
I bit my tongue and sat on my hands the last time that you posted that your cardiologist says your therapeutic dose of Coumadin is too high and that you must test twice a week. I was hoping that someone with more authority than yours truly would chime in. Your cardiologist does not know her asterisk from a hole in the ground. Let me clean that up to say, your cardiologist is severely misguided and ill informed when it comes to anticoagulation management. When she says your dose is too high, SHE IS WRONG. No if, ands, or butts! She is also wrong when she attributes the rise and fall of your INR to what you put in your mouth. Ask her if she knows that there are three types of Vitamin K. K-1 is found in food, especially green food. K-3 is synthetic K, often given when someone needs to lower the INR swiftly, as in the case of impending surgery. And then, there is K-2, which is manufactured right in our own bodies. In other words, we make our own Vitamin K. There are so many factors that contribute to an INR other than food, such as: changes in routine, exercise, the weather, sleep, tension, stress, other medical conditions, and Rain's dog. The cardiologist is BLAMING you and that is criminal!

Also, testing twice a week is not effective. You'll wind up with an INR jumping up and down....not to mention the additional stress and worry one feels when their INR is out of range. Maybe you could get a second opinion from another cardiologist?

Kind regards,
Blanche
 
Thanks

Thanks

Thanks Blanche,
I'm somewhat coming to the realization you spoke of about my cardiologist, as far as her knowledge of Coumadin. I've gone to her for 5 years now. She was highly recommended by my original (well, not original, but the only one worth mentioning) cardiologist who I saw for 13 years pre and post valve replacement. I think she's having me test twice a week right now because she raised my dose to bump me up when my INR was 1.5. She increased my dose and it stayed low and that concerned us both. (thanks once again to those stupid protein bars!) Now that we've found the culprit, she wants to make sure my INR doesn't jump way up -my INR has never been all that stable, but this was the first time it went that low and stayed low. So this is the first time she's had me test this much. I usually test once a month. If I have to take antibiotics for some reason, I test a bit more often. But I expect to go back to my old schedule shortly.

Fortunately, I have faith in her in many other ways. Lord knows I've seen my fair share of doctors in 18 years of heart troubles and she has proven herself in many ways. She'll listen willingly to me when I tell her about what I've learned from this group.

Thanks for your concern.

Karlynn
 
Twice a week really is overkill. It's better then 3 times a week, but once every week to two weeks would be fine.
 
Overkill...talk to my poor little fingers about overkill!:( I'm a music director for a church and part of my job involves playing piano. The lancets that QAS sends with my cuvettes seem to hurt more than the ones they use at the lab.
 
Just imagine if those were veinous draws instead of finger sticks. :eek: I know if it were me, I'd tell them no way and test no more then once a week.
 
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