So my mother who's been on coumadin and pretty darn stable for 35 years just went for her finger stick (still working on the home kit) and it read 8 (which is the max of the machine apparently). Her caregiver was with her so they called me. She retested in another finger, same. They're going to do a blood draw with some additional tests and see what's what but holy heck!! The Saturday before Thanksgiving she ended up in the hospital with a UTI and they had her on an antibiotic (ceftriaxone via IV and then another one orally for a few days total 8 days) and they were monitoring the INR with that (it bounced a bit between 1.8 and 3.5. After 9 days in the hospital she went to a skilled facility for some rehab the Monday after Thanksgiving and came home a week ago Friday. Since the Monday after Thanksgiving she hasn't been on an antibiotic and the skilled facility tested her INR 3x in 10 days. 11/29 it was 2.55 (perfect!), 12/2 was 3.28 (high but not scary, they adjusted her dose from the normal 5mg to 4.5/4 on alternating days. 12/8 it was 1.64 so they put her back to her original 5mg / day which she's been on for over a year and always in range. She goes today and gets that result of 8!!! Her diet has been about the same, she eats the same amount of greens each week, nothing else changed but she did get a head cold and due to her neurological disease, she can't make herself blow her nose or cough. Nurse has us managing with Mucinex but the one with only the 2 ingredient which the home health nurse and the anti-coag clinic pharmacist said shouldn't be an issue (and she's taken it before).
Anyone ever had this high of a reading before? Obviously we're holding the coumadin tonite and we'll see what the blood work says but wow.....
Anyone ever had this high of a reading before? Obviously we're holding the coumadin tonite and we'll see what the blood work says but wow.....
