I missed my 7.5mg Dose of Warfarin Last Night and Took 3 Xanax By Mistake!

[Julian]

Oh God, I normally take 7.5mg of warfarin a night along with 12.5mg of metoprolol, 10mg Lipitor. I have a weekly pill box. What I do in the morning is get my day of medication and put it in a single pocket bill box that has AM/PM compartments. On one side of the compartment I have 3 .25mg pills of Xanax just in case which I never take last time I took Xanax was on Thanksgiving day when I was nervous and at that I only took half a Xanax pill. I basically take it with me as a comfort blanket. :redface2:

Anyway by mistake and half asleep I took the wrong compartment of meds and downed 3 .25mg Xanax and missed my 7.5mg of Wafarin, 12.5mg of Metoprolol, and 10mg of Lipitor. :eek2:

My question is what should I do?!?!

Should I take an extra 2.5mg of Warfarin (10mg Warfarin total) tonight and then go back to my normal dose of 7.5 the rest of the week?

And when should I test again, today being Sunday test Tuesday?

Please assist, thanks team! :thumbup:

 

[Bill B]

I would make up the missed dose 100%. The most important thing is your average weekly dose. In other words, warfarin's main anticoagulant effects are so slow, you could just as well take twice your daily dose on an every other day schedule and end up with the same INR.

If you only take an extra 2.5 mg tonight, you will be down 5 mg for the week or about 10% of your weekly dose. That's really not much, and I would expect the INR to reflect that. So, say if you were at an INR of 3.0, by missing that 5 mg it might be 2.7 instead. Not a big deal unless you were already close to the bottom of the desired INR range. Still, I would make up the missed amount now and take your regular dose later tonight. I would not change my test schedule - when was you next test scheduled?

That would be my personal approach from the way I look at this drug. Some protocols might suggest something else, but that doesn't mean they're more correct.

 

[Freddie]

Personally, I wouldn't test on Tuesday. It takes almost to 3 days for a dose to work in your system.

Here's an example of myself: the days when I take 5mg and get tested 3 or 4 days later the results are always a tad lower than when I test 3 or 4 days after taking 6mg.

So, if you were to take the missed dose now and then your regular dose later today which is Sunday, that's almost a double dose. I would take the 10mg like you suggested then return to your regular dose and test again on Thursday - which will give the 10mg to deplete a little and your regular dose time to work. Hope this make sense.

 

[chaconne]

Dude,

I pray you will get this all sorted out. Not knowing what to do in these cases can be unsettling for newbes like us. Do you have a doctor/clinic that's following you, that you can call for advice?

 

[Bina]

Julian, don't worry....Usually if a person forgets their warfarin dose and notices within 12 hours, it is okay to take the missed dose and
then continue with normal routine. If you only notice a full day later, it is fine to split the missed dose and take it over 2 days.
Warfarin takes 2-3 days to have full effect in your system so no need for immediate panic, especially if your INR was in a safe zone.
At least you were relaxed taking the Xanax instead

 

[Julian]

Well, as an update Sunday night I took an extra 2.5mg dose of Warfarin and I called my INR clinic on Monday, they instructed me to test on Tuesday night to check my INR and said I did the right thing by taking the extra 2.5mg dose. I did as I was told and my INR was 2.7 and the Friday before it was 3.0. I figured it was too soon to test but like I said I did what I was told by my clinic.

On my own this past Friday I tested again and found my INR was 2.4. I'm very happy with the results considering my missed dose last Saturday night.

Thanks to all of you for the advice and support. I for the most part knew what to do but its good to hear the veterans chime in with their advice when things like this happen.

At this point I'm starting to feel like a warfarin veteran, any idea on when you guys are planning on "jumping" me in to make it official? :tongue2:

 

[Bina]

Well, as an update Sunday night I took an extra 2.5mg dose of Warfarin and I called my INR clinic on Monday, they instructed me to test on Tuesday night to check my INR and said I did the right thing by taking the extra 2.5mg dose. I did as I was told and my INR was 2.7 and the Friday before it was 3.0. I figured it was too soon to test but like I said I did what I was told by my clinic.

On my own this past Friday I tested again and found my INR was 2.4. I'm very happy with the results considering my missed dose last Saturday night.

Thanks to all of you for the advice and support. I for the most part knew what to do but its good to hear the veterans chime in with their advice when things like this happen.

At this point I'm starting to feel like a warfarin veteran, any idea on when you guys are planning on "jumping" me in to make it official? :tongue2:

Grasshopper, you have done well. I am proud of you, but veteran status is still further down the road.