Advice appreciated please.
Hello everyone,
Would appreciate a bit of friendly advice if you wouldn’t mind from anyone taking Warfarin.
I was first put on Warfarin in 2013 when I had a Pulmonary Embolism. I came off it after a certain time but then got another Pulmonary Embolism in 2015 so am on them forever I suppose.
I started off going for an INR blood test every two weeks, then once a month, my reading was steady, always somewhere between 2.3 and 2.8 (recommended range 2.5). the highest reading ever was 2.9 which was the visit before this last one. My visit last week was 3 months since the previous visit so they must have been satisfied with the readings even though the 2.9 was rather higher than normal.
But after my last visit last week, I was informed by phone from the hospital that my INR reading had shot up to 4.1.!! They asked me if I had changed my diet, eaten different foods, been on a diet, etc. Then started talking about Vitamin K intake and was I taking too little or too much. That not enough Vitamin K would make my INR reading higher with the risk of bleeding or stroke, (I wondered why my arm would not stop bleeding after the injection!) usually it stops straight away.
Anyway, I digress – When she asked me if I was taking enough Vitamin K, I couldn’t answer her, 3 months is a long time between INR visits to remember if I had eaten something different. No-one at the hospital or the Medical Centre has ever mentioned the necessity of controlling my Vitamin K intake while on Warfarin and I have been happily going along eating whatever and whenever.
I don’t like looking medical things up online for fear of turning into a hypochondriac, but thought I had better start researching about Vitamin K. I nearly dropped when I realised how important it was and how it could affect the Warfarin doing its job. Apparently, I have to have a Vitamin K intake of no more than 90 mpg daily. (my goodness, the take-away Chinese meal I had on Friday was 135!!)
Anyway. I’ve done my research and now know some of the high/low, good/bad foods regarding Vitamin K, but I wondered how anyone else on here fares with their food intake regarding this vitamin.
Do you follow a strict regime managing everything you eat? do you have an indepth list of every food and beverage so you know what is what and how much you can eat? I would be very grateful to anyone on Warfarin letting me know how they manage their food and drink to ensure they don’t go over the recommended adult range of 90 mpg daily, because unless I do a list of every single thing that I consume from the supermarket, butcher and greengrocer, and that doesn’t include spices, sauces, gravies, OMG ! The mind boggles. How am I going to know whether I am taking in enough or not enough Vitamin K?
Thank you very much for any advice you can give to this ignoramus.