What are your thoughts?

[Karlynn]

Last week I tested at 4.4. I like to stay around 3. I had been going between 3 and 3.5 previousely. So I lowered my weekly dose by a little less than 10%. And tested again today at 3.1. I'm thinking part of the reason for the 4.4 was that I hadn't been able to work out regularly for about 3 weeks due to a hectic schedule. I'm now back to working out.

I'm thinking if I stay on this current dose that it will drop even more, since it dropped 1.3 in a week.

Any suggestions?

 

[Ross]

You should know better then to ask me about my thoughts! I can't post those here or I'll be banned. Some of you would love that, I know, but it ain't happenin today.

Stay with your current and see what happens. Mines been creeping upward for no apparent reason lately and I backed off 10%. I'm in range now, just a tiny bit lower then what I'd like, but in range.

 

[tommy]

Karlynn,

Me too! I spiked up to 4.8 for the 2nd time in a month. All I can think of is that I didn't eat a lot of greens lately. I spent a month gradually declining to range. Fortunately, my Coumadin nurse does not over react.

Do you have a medical professional helping you with dosage?

My understanding is that exercise increases your INR! My opinion is that 10%-20% change can be appropriate. Rather than a more drastic change, I've held a dose for a day or two. I always come back to the same does plus or minus 5%.

Is this any help?

 

[KathyH]

My INR is out of wack too. This is the first time it is this out of wack. INR was 4.7 last week so they had me skip a dose and go back to 5mg per day ( 35 mg per week from 37.5mg). Today I was 2.1. I was put on antibiotics last Thursday, I understand that will lower the INR. Will an infection increase the INR? I am on the antibiotics for another 5 days, so I guess I better have a drink every day since my coumadin was not changed.
Kathy H

 

[Guest]

Usually illness and antibiotics raise the INR. If somebody comes to me and their INR is 4.7 and they have been doing well on that dose, I usually have them just hold one dose and make no other changes. This usually results in their being in range the next time. If it is still up, then I would lower the dose just as you did. I don't consider 4.7 anything to get too worried about.

 

[McCln]

Mine has been crazy all summer and the beginning of the fall. Did get a good reading, changed dosage and it went down again, so changed dosage again. I will let you all know my week on Thursday, I see cardio and primary this week. I hope that everything is still going great.

 

[tobagotwo]

I wonder if the change to Autumn has an effect on INR. It certainly has a pronounced effect on every other part of the metabolism. I noted that everyone who had a sudden lNR issue was from a northern state, except for Tom. He did recently say something about his recent morning runs being quite cold, though.

Anything to that, Al?

Always curious,

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Hi Bob,

I usually require a dose decrease in the fall.

 

[Guest]

A few years ago, I looked at the mean INR for each month of the year for a total of 4 years. Pueblo has one of the largest swings in the US from the 20s in Jan to the 90s in July. The mean INR was the exact same number for all twelve months.

Brian Gage in St. Louis looked at each person coming to his clinic for a year and found no change.

There was one other study that found a small change.

I think what we found out is that almost everyone lives at the same temperature all year round because of heating and air conditioning. There might be a few people who take warfarin and work outside all year round but the numbers of them are too small to show up in these studies.

There are probably some individual variations but mostly the answer seems to be that the outdoor temperature makes little difference.