I've only been on Coumadin since 3/3/09 but when my INR is low they increase the dosage. They want mine to stay between 2-3. You should question the nurse as to why you would come off if your INR is low. How long have you been on it? I was told I will be on it for 6-12 months. I have multiple PEs and one small DVT.

hi hattie,

low inr has no bearing on going off coumadin. the only reasons to go off would be if your clot was completely resolved, if you had a bad reaction to the drug, or if you were having surgery or some other procedure with a risk of bleeding. the only way to know if your clot is gone would be some type of imaging (usually ultrasound).

personally, i've had bad experiences with nurses making inappropriate (or just plain wrong) comments to me. best to ask your doc for more info. knowledge is power, after all!

blessigs ellyn

Forget the nurse and question your doctor.

Just to clarify - it wasn't the nurse who decided, but she was the one who told me of my GP's decision. I asked her to go back and re-check because it sounded so unreasonable and she called back to say the doctor had said yes, it was fine to go off coumadin.
I have an appointment a week from today with my GP's partner, and will ask the question in person. In the meantime, I will take an aspirin a day and some extra fish oil.
How long does coumadin stay in my system?

I think it stays in your system 3-5 days.

I meant check with the doctor about why they're taking you off warfarin, because just to take you off of it for a low INR seems weird, to me anyway. I wonder if the nurse was either unable to explain the reason to you properly or misunderstood the doctor's explanation for coming off. I've gotten some really strange and at times, completely false, info from a couple of nurses too (no offense all you nurses out there!). The nurse who used provide me my INR results, dosages, etc from my old doctor's office truely had no idea what she was talking about, how warfarin worked, the impact other meds and foods can have on your INR, etc. I think I may have been one of the few patients they had who was on warfarin, so she didn't have a lot of experience with it.

Anyway, glad you have an appointment next week to at least understand what's going on.

Hattie,

While you are at the doc's, also ask to see if he/she will order a "D-Dimer" blood test for you before you go off the warfarin. I recently learned about this test from this forum (about 2 weeks ago in the postings) and it seems like a good benchmark to get to see (1) where you are at now on the anti-coags and (2) what your numbers are a month or so after discontinuing.

Of course, getting the doctor to do those things is not always easy (at least it's not in my case).

Best of luck!