skipping a dose &/or reducing weekly dose?

[aussigal]

I am wondering what you knowledgeable people do when you test a little "high" . I got a 4.2 which isnt that high...but....

Skip a day and reduce the weekly dose or just reduce the weekly dose?

Is there any difference or benefit with either option?

 

[Karlynn]

Ton, what is your weekly dose right now? And what is your range? What has your INR been lately?

The following is all "If it were me" thoughts. Everyone is different and 15 years of Coumadin use allow me to know what my body does with dosage changes.

so If it were me:
I wouldn't skip a dose, I probably wouldn't change my dose. I'd most likely just keep it the same and retest in a week. But my range is 2.5-3.5

If my previous INR's showed that is had been getting higher, I'd probably do a 10% reduction, or maybe even just a 5%.

Remember, the more Coumadin you take the faster your INR will drop. I take 70/week.

Has something changed lately, such as your activity level? If you usual get some physical exercise and you haven't been able to lately, then I'd just leave the dose alone if you were going to be getting back to the activity level.

 

[Ross]

If it's been climbing over the last few tests, myself, I would skip one and lower my overall by 5 to 10%. Now if this is not the case with you, follow what Karlynn is saying. If this is just one test showing that high, I'd leave it go week and see.

 

[JimL]

I'll chip in with what I would do if it were me: I would probably reduce my weekly dosage by 1 mg, in my case from 48 mg per week to 47 mg per week.
I tested 6.0 a couple of weeks ago, so I only took 3 mg that day.

 

[Guest]

Whatever you do will probably not result in a disaster.

 

[Ross]

Whatever you do will probably not result in a disaster.

Nope, she's been taught much too well.

 

[aussigal]

Thanks....
I think my range is sposed to be 2.5-3.0 (yeah I know thats not a big enough range). Anyways I usually hang within 0.2 of that range and hadnt needed a change of dose since starting the Arthritis pills months ago.

I have a pretty good idea what caused this little rise. I stopped taking an Arthritis pill that was messing with my inr and went back to 5mg per day (up from 4.5mg. daily.) Now to really complicate things I still have to take Crestor which also apparently messes with the inr.

I also missed out on my green vegies this week ,usually I eat heaps of greens.

I reckon I will go back to 4.5mg daily and eat my regular ammount of greens and retest in a week to see how its going.

Yes Ross I try to be a good student!

I am still curious as to what good/use is skipping a dose?

 

[Ross]

For most people, skipping a dose is like an instant stop to the climbing. For some, holding one dose can be the thing that puts them below range. They metabolize the drug quickly and drop like a rock. You pretty much need to know your own system, what works, what doesn't, then you can tell what you should do.