Taken too much warfarin

[wpw62]

Help! I took 4mg warfarin at 6pm and the took another 3mg by mistake at 8.30 pm instead if another heart tablet. Am waiting for Nhs direct to call me back but feeling very worried.

[Beancounter Volunteer]

Hi wpw

You did correct in contacting NHS direct, but I feel certain they will say don't worry, ring your clinic in the morning and let them know, but you are unlikely to come to any harm overnight or go into a bleed as I understand it, unless you have any other pre-existing conditions.

I'd avoid bacon slicers and chain saws for a few hours maybe

Be well

Ian

[wpw62 in reply to Beancounter]

Thanks Ian. I will leave the tree standing then!

[BobD Volunteer in reply to wpw62]

Agree with Ian. You could eat a plate of spinach of course. Seriously don't worry as your INR will not shoot up that quickly and we were told at last years HRC that there is little risk up to INR 5 My brother in law's target is 3.5 anyway. See what NHS direct have to say but don't worry.

Bob

[wpw62 in reply to BobD]

Thanks Bob. Nhs direct are getting an emergency doctor to ring me as my dose for tomorrow might need adjusting and then I should have another INR check done as well.

[rosyG]

Do follow advice given by your doctor- My INR had risen steeply last week-end and I did take some spinach which brought it down- but below range!! You could ask the doctor who rings if it's wise to take a little spinach??

[wpw62 in reply to rosyG]

Doctor has just phoned me. He doesn't think it will be a problem. Just to watch out for any bleeding. I must get an INR check tomorrow before taking my next dose. I will pay more attention when taking all my tablets. I got distracted talking to my husband. It's his fault! Got to blame someone.

[dedeottie]

It is so easily done isn't it? From my experience you will be fine although we are all different of course. You have done all the right things so try not to worry now.x

[wpw62]

Thank you all for your kind remarks and concern. It is good to have you all to count on for helpful advice.

[brown-brooksy in reply to wpw62]

I did the same thing yesterday,i was suppose to take two and half so cut one five in half,and then took both halves(senior moment)just going to ring the nurse to see what i should do.

[wpw62 in reply to brown-brooksy]

Hope you are now sorted out. It's an unsettling feeling when you realise you have taken too much. Good luck Cathy

[MarkS]

I would have thought you just miss out the next dose completely then back to normal.

The good thing about warfarin is that it's quite forgiving if you miss a dose or take too much as it builds up more slowly in the system. I've missed my evening dose in the past because my normal routine has changed (been out to dinner etc.) and just double up the next day. It has little impact on my INR.

The NOACs do leave you vulnerable to a stroke if you miss a dose as they are so much faster acting but also have a short half life.

[BobD Volunteer]

Hope everything is O K now WPW. Reminds me of some of the daft things I have done. I have a 7 day pill box I sort out each weekend. One Friday I discovered no pills for Friday so concluded I had taken two lots one day. OOPS! Stupid Boy Pike. Nothing bad happened and they were not just Warfarin but three others as well. I think Mark is right that Warfarin is very tolerant .

Bob

[Hidden]

Hoping you are okay this morning? It's easy to do, I've taken twice my bisoprolol before now (fortunately when it was at a very low dose). Even with a pill box it's easy to do, and I'm glad to hear warfarin's very tolerant!

[wpw62]

Thank you all for taking the trouble to find out how I am today. Going for an INR check tonight after work but before I have to take today's warfarin.

[Wightbaby]

Thank goodness i am not the only one who gets distracted occasionally and can't remember if I have taken my Warfarin or not......!!!

[MarkS]

Thanks, Ectopic. You're right, the standard instruction is not to double up on the dose. However I've monitored myself with my Coaguchek and it's worked fine. That's one of the advantages of those machines.

I mark my pink strips up with the day over the tablet in a marker pen (M, Tu, W, etc.) as I always have one pink tablet with either half another pink or a blue (7.5 or 8 mg). That way I know staright away if I've missed or already taken a dose. It's simpler than pill boxes and a lot more portable when I go travelling.

[wpw62]

Well I have had my INR checked tonight. Bizarrely it had reduced from 2.2 last Friday to 1.6 tonight. So not so good. My warfarin has been increased to 4mg per day starting tonight and I have to go back on Tuesday morning for another INR check. As I was not due to get checked again for another three weeks maybe this was a good thing in a way as who knows if it would have got even lower or not. Feel in limbo again waiting for my check up at Papworth which had just been put back a week to 15th October. My heart rate feels south better apart from several ectopic beats last week which made me feel faint ax it was very slow as well. It does make life interesting Be well everyone one x

[shirlygirly]

Made me remember a time years ago when I took one of the dogs heart

tablets in stead of my of a headache tablet. Husband rang vet who said

dont worry unless she starts barking, I can regularly do really stupid things

when my mind is elsewhere which is frequently. X

[wpw62 in reply to shirlygirly]

Hi shirlygirl. You did make me laugh. Thank you just what I needed x

[Hidden]

I'm terrible. I have a 7-day pill box, a reminder set for when I have to take pills morning and night, and an Excel file to fill in every time I do. And I still forget !!!

[wpw62]

I have reminders set on my phone and a sticker next to my tablets and still got it wrong !

[tootsy in reply to wpw62]

im glad i though i was the only one."

[cb25]

love this discussion, it has been a bit re-assuring. I have been on warfarin for 10 years (and the specialist says- probably for the rest of my life). I keep a tick list, a daily tick a box thing where I tick my medicines off then take them forthwith (as a matter of routine). that way I know that I have not missed a dose for the day. well I just happened to be glancing at the list for no particular reason and noticed that tomorrows dose had been ticked off. well that set in the panic. I am on basically 3mg a day, current INR 2.5 after having been raised from 1.8 recently after some bleeding from injury, but I am not sure how my tick list got ahead of itself nor when as I have been distracted the last few days by other matters. so I rang my GP immediately and managed an INR test forthwith. GP advised miss tomorrow's dose irrespective of what the INR is at the moment. now I am really appreciating my tick list- and I thought I was just keeping it so I wouldn't miss a dose!

[ccponds in reply to cb25]

I've been on warfarin for 21 years. Use to take 18 mg, but down to 13 with a 2.5 inr for the last few years. I'll be on it for life also.

[Jodie_Scott22]

Well this was reasuring, at 4 am in the morning.. I've taken 3 15mg of rivaroxaban forgetting that I'd taken two already.. I remember years ago, I'm only 22.. but it was about 4 years ago when I was on warfarin. I kept missing my blood test appointments, so carried on taking the same dose for a few days, I ended up in hospital for a different reason, and they'd taken routine tests. 15 mins later the doctor came running in, with a hospital bed telling me that I wasn't going anywhere apart from intensive care because my blood was so thin.. I needed vit k injections and very closely monitered.. I didn't want to ring the hospital cause it's to early to be transferred to different hospitals, ( normal hospital, hammersmith, then on to papworth) ill ring my doctor in the morning..

[tootsy]

just joined group.very helpfull. thanks.

[Joynjoy]

Thanks for your 4yr old post!! I've just taken 2 doses of wafarin, headed for this site as soon as i realised what I'd done. You've reassured me. Thanks.