A stiff drink

[Magic8Ball]

Not really a life or death question but how has everyones experience with alcohol consumption been post op when on warafin.

From what i can read you need to stay well away from it, perhaps a glass of wine once and a while.

I measure my wine intake by the bottle so if this is true this will be yet another lifestyle change i will need to come to terms with..

Are there any post op borderline alcoholics out there not having issues on warafin

 

[WendyD]

Hi there, Ernie had his AVR last year in March and he has a regular whisky.
When we asked the cardio and the Gp we were told what ever you do, do it regurlarly and in moderation.
The same thing goes for eating green veges with vitamin K.
So we do have a regular drink (or 2) and we eat the same amount of green veges every day and his INR has remained at approx 2.5 for the last few months.
Wishing you all the very best with your recovery
Ernie & Wendy

 

[hensylee]

this question comes up 2-3-4 times a year here in VR. I am sure we will discuss it again here to bring all up to date. Just give it a bit of time and they'll come along.

 

[Karlynn]

http://valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17116

Give this a read. It explains the overview on alcohol consumption.

How often do you have a bottle of wine? You'd be better off having a glass a night rather than a whole bottle in an evening and then again a week or so later. This doesn't mean that if you want a glass of wine, you need to make sure you have it every day. It just means that moderate consumption daily is better than "mass consumption" occasionally.

I was just on a weekend vacation w/ friends. Rum and Cokes, beer and Cosmopolitans were on my list for the weekend. I'm not a heavy drinker, so I really don't give much thought to what alcohol is doing to my Coumadin. And I don't have any digestive issues that would cause me to think I have an ulcer.

 

[Mike C]

Most experts will tell you to drink in moderation and be conistent, basically 1-2 beers a night and not more.

I dont worry so much about the effects it has on my inr, its more about the alcohol damaging stomach, etc which could cause it to bleed.

with that said, i still go out and have beers, tonight ill probabky have 4-5.

 

[Nancy]

I believe that Coumadin is metabolized by the liver. So anything that compromises your liver is not a good thing and will interfere with Coumadin. And heavy drinking is one of those things.

 

[catwoman]

Magic8Ball:

The link for those new to warfarin contains excellent information.

In addition:
After indulging a little too much, drinkers are less steady on their feet, thus at risk of falling and possibly hitting their head. "Falling-down drunk" is an accurate phrase.

Warfarin is metabolized by liver enzymes. If you have reduced liver function due to longtime heavy drinking, that's not good.

 

[mtkayak]

I completely agree with the above posts. It does seem like this subject is revisited once a month but is good for people to know. I don't exactly fall into the category of a consistent drinker, the one thing I'm not consistent at. I use to have maybe a beer or two a day but since surgery I have cut that out. Not because of Coumadin but to cut the calories out of my diet. However, I have been known to cut loose on a Saturday night and have a lot of whiskey or beer. After all, it is football season and football and beer go together I find the weeks that I drink 5 or 6 beers on a Saturday that my INR may fluctuate by .5. So on the week that I drink I usually hold back 2.5mg. For example, my dosage now is TTSS is 5mg. a day and MWF is 7.5mg a day. That is a total of 42.5mg. a week. The week that I drink I simply take 40mg., just subtract 2.5mg. That seems to be the magic number for me becuse my INR stays in the 3.0-3.5 when I do this. That's how I counter the inconsistency of my occassional drinking. Of course, this might not work for everybody.

 

[Guest]

Football and beer go so well together than one of my female patients has a GI bleed the day after every Broncos game. She has been doing this for the past 8 years. Her reasoning is that she doesn't want to be the only one sober. She is a tiny, anemic person who has an inherited clotting disorder that several family members died from, so she cannot stop warfarin.

I think that this challenges Harley-Davidson's cliam that they have the world's most valuable logo because people will tattoo it on their butts.

 

[mtkayak]

Football and beer go so well together than one of my female patients has a GI bleed the day after every Broncos game. She has been doing this for the past 8 years. Her reasoning is that she doesn't want to be the only one sober. She is a tiny, anemic person who has an inherited clotting disorder that several family members died from, so she cannot stop warfarin.

I think that this challenges Harley-Davidson's cliam that they have the world's most valuable logo because people will tattoo it on their butts.

I don't fall in that category either. Instead of getting drunk, I drink water after a certain point. Then precede to act like I'm drunk or an idiot, which isn't hard to do. That's the fun part about it, when you hang out with drunk people ,and not drink, you can do stupid things and nobody notices