Finally self-testing at home-INR 5 yesterday-on 7-1/2 mg of warfarin

[loretta1106]

Finally in USA in NY got approval for home testing after being hospitalized in June with an INR of 13! Doctor called after seeing INR of 5. I'm nervous about level 5. MD told me to skip two doses but I asked her if I could up my greens and skip one dose and restest in 3 days. If still high-skip another dose. In the past when I was told to skip two doses INR plummeted to 1.2 etc

I have antiphospholipid and undifferentiated connective tissue disease. I had a stroke 3-1/2 years ago.

I do not get blood draws for INR because my doctor does finger stick also.

Have been totally skipping greens like Kale and spinach because I was told they have way too much vitamin K.

[daisyd]

Fantastic home testing is brilliant, I think my INR would be all over the place without doing it myself are you on the sticky blood site on here too

[loretta1106 in reply to daisyd]

Hi. Yes I am on the sticky blood site but seem to get posts mostly from anxiety site. APS in the USA is beyond frustrating. Internist follows my ones but I seem to know more than the doctors do which is frightening. I’m so happy testing at home. My Inr was so steadily good for over a year until my hospitalization this summer & is now unpredictable.

[triff]

Great that you're self testing, it gives you both independence and understanding on a much finer grain detail about what affects your INR.

One thing I'd say is it is very unpredictable, if you need to alter your dose then just do that, don't try and affect it by upping your vitamin K intake or anything. Warfarin takes two days to have an effect on your INR and greens would be much faster, so you can't safely alter your intake of both. Warfarin interactions are not an exact science! For example I ate something with watercress once and it absolutely nuked my INR when I went for a test the next day (pre self testing), I hadn't missed any doses and that was the only thing I could think of that might've affected it.

13 is super high - were there any drugs involved? I didn't know about the Warfarin/ibuprofen effects and once got mine up to 9 so multiplied it by 3. I do still eat greens - a) I'm veggie and they're hard to avoid, b) I like them - but as long as it's in moderation you should be OK, so a few sprouts are OK but don't go on a kale binge

I'm on 7.5mg too, generally if I forget a dose I'll take 10mg and if I'm high I'll skip a day. Your mileage may vary though, there are a lot of variables at work - diet, lifestyle, BMI... Just remember that any alterations to your dose will take two days to show up on your INR.

[rosyG]

when I was on Warfarin ( am on Apixaban now) I used to have greens to bring my INR down but you need to be careful as it can drop too low. Eating a lot of spinach brought mine down in a few hours- if I did it now I would take a smaller amount and keep testing to check!!

[loretta1106]

Thanks. I know. I just skipped one dose. Md wanted me to skip two. I then ate a lot of broccoli and it went down to 1.7 in 3 days!