Warfarin usually is "dosed" to fit your lifestyle and not you to fit it. That being said, less to no alcohol and less to no smoking are wise choices for your health anyway. "limit" on vit K food is more like, don't eat a plate full of Spinach or Kale at random to massively spike your vit K, you can eat it just not overload on it and cause problems between testings of your INR. There are enough various meds for you to get replacements for things and activities that cause bleeding are usually high contact sports that would be dangerous even without being on warfarin....others may know more than me, but there is my 10 cents for you...Stu.

I don't really do anything different now that I'm a lifer.

When I was on for only six months, I did follow all that stuff, but as a lifer you realize you just can't live your whole life without salad. Some meds are necessary to take, even if they will affect your INR.

Mostly, yes, my mindset switched when I became a lifer. We adjust the dose to my lifestyle. If I add a drug that'll affect my INR, we adjust my dosage as needed. I try to eat veggies on a regular basis. I mean, I wouldn't decide overnight to go vegetarian without talking to my doctor, but it could be done if I wanted to. Lots of folks partake in "dangerous" activities like hockey, skiing, and off-road biking. Many of us drink alcohol.

I also tend to do quite a few road trips and long flights. I just wear my stockings and stay hydrated and it isn't really a worry. Really, if everyone would do that, we'd probably have fewer clots in the world.

And really, you don't even have to have those restrictions for short-term treatment. It is kind of old-school thinking to take you off stuff while you are on warfarin. More and more docs are making you aware of what can affect your levels, but then just sending you out into the world to live like normal. They'll adjust the dose to your life.

And really, I think that is better all around. You're dealing with a major health event. You have enough to deal with without analyzing every morsel you put into your mouth.

Right. Even when I was on warfarin for 6 months, I didn't limit vitamin K foods and would have a drink or two. I just tried to be mindful and somewhat consistent with my diet. But for sure I was more conscious of what I was doing during those 6 months than I am now. Once I was on warfarin long term, it's kind of hard to maintain that vigilance and you realize, ok I gotta live my life as normally as possible. So same here, I do pretty much everything I did when I wasn't on warfarin. I eat what I want (still being mindful) and play sports and stuff. I can't advocate returning to smoking obviously. I test regularly and am compliant with my meds and for the last few years my warfarin has been generally steady with a few exceptions.

Even if you are on the stuff for life, some doctors will still tell you have to limit vitamin k and make all these concessions for being on warfarin and frankly, I think some of that is antiquated thinking, or limited experience with managing warfarin and INR in the non-elderly.

So you are in the first stage, where you've had an event and they've set you up with warfarin, and there's things that need to happen.

First, they need to make sure you dont have another event.
Second, the clots need time to break up and be absorbed.

Those are pretty important, and it's very new for you. I have been just under 3 months.....I am settling down a bit and being careful, but yo need to find your peace and comfort point on this, in conjunction with your dr.