Why are we not suppose to drink green tea?

[yotphix]

I'm very pleased to see that so many people here have the same experience as I have. I started out on coumadin trying to keep track of what I had eaten and estimate what I should eat. I knew all along that despite what the various medical professionals were suggesting I needed to continue eating green. What I learned over a short period of time is that it was way easier to adjust the dose of the thing with numbers printed on the side than to guess at the K content and bioavailability of the the things I was eating. Once I gave up on the backwards method I discovered that I can and do take the same (fairly high at 9.5mg) dose each day and just eat exactly the same what I did before surgery. I haven't been out of range in weekly testing since I adopted this strategy late last year.
For those who wonder - I do know that I could just take 9 and 10 on alternating days but it is just as easy for me to take a 5, a 2 and a 2.5 with my 81mg aspirin each day and I like the consistency and not having to remember which day it is.
Paul

 

[lance]

Paul,
Try and remember to DOSE THE DIET and not the other way around and remember to take it.
Sandra

 

[Protimenow]

I like your thinking - a 5, a 2, a 2.5. In the past, I've done something like that, too - taking one dose on days with a T (Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday) in them and a different dose on the other days.

I use generic warfarin, and in California they have a funny rule about the pricing on some generic drugs. I can get 90 10 mg warfarin for $10, but 90 5 MG pills are about $25. So, in my curent dosing schedule (7mg/day or 49/week), it's 1/2 of a 10 mg, 1/2 of a 4 mg, and I'm all set. When I was taking 7.5 / day, it was just as easy 1/2 of a 10 mg, and a 2.5 mg (I wasn't comfortable breaking a 10 mg into quarters - the few cents I saved doing this wasn't worth it to me to not know I was actually getting 2.5 - although the small amount I erred may not have made any long term difference anyway).

If you're taking a strange number - maybe different doses on alternate days - or three pills a day - one of those 7 day pill holders may make it easier to remember your two-or-three pill dose, but it's actually fairly easy to come up with ANY weekly dose using the pills that are already available.

And, yes, absolutely dose the diet. (I'm splitting a bottle of wine with my wife at dinner, because that's what I'm dosing for. It's difficult, but I've got to do it)

 

[yotphix]

I use generic warfarin, and in California they have a funny rule about the pricing on some generic drugs. I can get 90 10 mg warfarin for $10, but 90 5 MG pills are about $25.

Wow! I had no idea that generic 10's could be had so cheaply. I happen to be spending a fair bit of time in California these days and I actually just ordered my generic warfarin from a Canadian pharmacy for about three times that, and still cheaper than I was paying at my local pharmacy in Toronto. Time for me to start shopping around again I guess. I figured I was doing well to get by on something like a dollar a day. You're down around 10 cents!

 

[Protimenow]

Generic Warfarin at some of the pharmacies have come down to a little over a dime a day ($10 for 90 pills). When I break them in half, it's less than a nickel.
I also get by with 4 mg (same price) broken in half, so I can easily make 7 mg for a 49/week dosing schedule. Cost per day - a bit more than a dime. If I want to move up slightly from 7 mg/day to 7.5, then it's 1/2 of a 10 mg, and a full 2.5 mg - or about 16 cents/day.

Before I used the generics, I was paying about $1 or so for brand name coumadin.

If you had a prescription you could fill for generics in California, you can probably take advantage of the less expensive generics.

(One other thing -- I've found that, personally, the generics seem to be as effective as the brand name Coumadin - when switching from brand name to generic, having a meter helps you to validate that your INR hasn't changed as a result of the move to warfarin from a generic source. It probably won't hurt to do some testing a bit more often to confirm that the 'new' medication hasn't made your INR move up or down--and to allow you to modify your dosage so your INR is still within range. (The generics haven't knocked me out of range, but it was still comforting to confirm this with my meter).