There's some debate about this (you can run some searches to see past discussions on alcohol and INR). Alcohol is a notable blood thinner, but it may not necessarily affect your INR (INR isn't the only thing that measures how well your blood clots. Remember, Lovenox doesn't affect your INR either). People have had different experiences with this.

If you're having a glass of wine on a regular basis, I would think your meds could be adjusted around it and I wouldn't think that it would affect your INR bouncing up and down (unless you're going on weekly benders or something).

Just keep in mind that INRs are wonky. If they were easy to regulate, we wouldn't have to get tested so often. I normally take 6mg a day and have for three years now. In the last month, I've spiked to 3.7 and 4.2 for no apparent reason. In fact, I've been eating more salad than usual, if you can believe it.

Take a deep breath and let the docs continue to noodle with the dosage. Sometimes it takes a while to get these things sorted out.

One thought though ... coumadin dosages can take several days to make their full effects known. If they're drawing every two days and adjusting, it is possible that the last dose change hasn't fully taken effect, which is why you're getting wildly flunctuating numbers. It may sound counter-intuitive, but I think I'd argue for draws every four days or so and see if that helps smooth things out.

Thanks so much for the comments.I'm going away next week and won't have a draw for no nine days, maybe I'll see some difference.

I think getting blood drawn every 2 days is way too often and you're not getting a real sense of what dosage is appropriate when you do that. That's my two cents.

I agree with rmb. It took me nearly 3 months to level out after going off it for my hysterectomy, and they still only checked mine once a week. The only exception was when it got up to 4.8. They had me withhold a dose one day and then recheck in 4 days, just to make sure it didn't go too far the other way.

But aside from that, any time I start back on coumadin, it always takes me ages to get regulated. I'm really slow to get the INR to move, and then it suddenly jumps from 1.8 to 3.5 or whatever. But then once I hit the "sweet spot," I stay there pretty firmly.

I was told 2 drinks a day is fine, but with everything, just be consistent. My INR has fluctuated from 1.2 to 2.5, and last time it was 1.9. They think it mostly has to do with my increasing activity, which makes sense. Even at 1.9, they just wanted to see me again in 2wks. HTH.