Kelley's Posts

Kelly, I had my surgery in January 2102. I have a mechanical aortic valve. I home test my INR. I too have trouble sometimes with my level. Yes, I use shakes. It is hard to get used to because it is bland, but I use frozen blueberries, greens (Organic Girl Super Greens and Protein Greens), Native Organic Hemp Protein powder and the other thing I add is a 1/3 to 1/2 scoop of Amy Myers MD Leaky Gut Revive which I order form her website. I had many problems after my surgery and ended up at the Mayo Clinic where they diagnosed me with Celiac. I have religiously avoided gluten for 5 years now and I also have to be very careful about dairy. It causes me problems digestively if I eat too much of it. Because of the Celiac I started to see a nutritionist and a functional medicine doctor and started to understand my digestive system more clearly. Specifically damage to the lining of my small intestine affects absorption of nutrients that had caused me a whole array of problems. As a result of understanding that for myself, I am much better off now, but I still have occasional issues which is why I add the leaky gut revive every day. Basically I feel like the absorption in my digestive system affects my INR (and many other things). So, I have to pay close attention to what I am eating (all land animal products affect me adversely), any over the counter medication (I just try to take nothing at all except my warfarin), environmental allergies affect my digestion also. So if there is anything that I know is affecting my digestion, I can count on my INR being a little off. The shakes and the Leaky Gut Revive really help me keep it in check. That and drinking lots and lots of electrolyte water for some reason (like Smart Water). I can give you my email if you want to communicate that way about this subject. I know it can be frustrating!

Celiac is tough. My girlfriend has it so we have to prep lab where we go to eat to ensure the restaurant can accommodate. I live the idea of a shake just not sure how to gage measurements. I guess it's trial and error. I do no have a tester for INR

I second Cathy. The nature of INR is that it goes up and down and it varies because of so many variables. You can't control all of them. Your INR will spike, you change your meds (a tiny bit) and it will spike in the other direction. Travel, illness, other meds, alcohol... life.., green tea, cranberry juice are just some things that may affect it. Hang in there. I am not careful with food intake. How can one really control the amount of vitamin K in one particular salad leaf? We can't. It varies. I eat everything , and don't look at amounts, and my INR finally got more stable (after about 6 months). But it does spike and I carry on and have learned that even if I don't change my meds, it will go down on its own. This does not mean I don't keep testing, but I eventually found a dose that generally works for me. So I vary it with tiny tiny increments when my INR changes (my present dose is 3 days of 8 mg and the 4th day of 10 mg). I truly wish someone had told me that INR takes a LONG time to stabilise and will continue to vary and that it is okay, as long as you are a responsible patient and continue to test and be aware. Take care.