Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
Besides the obvious what can cause INR fluctuations? Mine want from 2.3 to 1.3.In a two week time frame. I take my warfarin and watch my dietary intake so I am confused why the sudden change. Oh and to make matters more confusing I got a nose bleed the day before my INR was checked.
The direction of the wind, the alignment of the stars, color of your underwear, whether your home team won, whether you have enough "tiger blood" flowing through your veins ...
Seriously, I wouldn't think about it too much. It is gonna fluctuate and there isn't always a good reason. Stay consistent with your testing and roll with the punches.
Mine just plummeted a whole point in 5 days because of an extreme bout of stress dealing with my family that caused me to have an anxiety attack. I've had a migraine for 3 days - which is always a very bad sign that I'm below range.
The clinic tested me on Wed. at 2.9, and now my meter is showing about 1.6 to 1.8, I say about because my anemia is making my meter inaccurate, so I have to do an estimate based on comparisons to past labs.
I did also start eating a little more spinach the past few days, but normally that won't affect it this badly. I guess that with the major stress did it.
So I just took my third Advil for the day, will take fish oil and hope for the best.
What advice I can offer is:
1. Take your meds at the same time every day.
2.rest and relax... Take time for u every day.
3. Keep a chart of what u eat and how much u drink, my doctor always wants me to do this... Also any medication changes like taking advil... This can change the INR.
4. Check with ur doctor about prescription high dose vitamins... Helps with the anemia a lot...
(mind u much of this is a heart to heart with my dad and getting help from him about PE.)
I guess it is a bit of advice from a 62 year old man who did the gammitt... 2 massive PE, a heart attack, prostate issues, rumatic fever, copd, asthma, I could go on and on... But here was his advice to me .......
"give ur self a high five if the crowd is absent.. If ur INR is high or low, dont get hung up, that is what the doctors are there for. Ur full time job is feeling and getting better. The doctors are the ones who need to do the numbers game. Trying to figure out what dose is right and wrong will drive u insane. Just be kind to your body "
I've been able to get some consistency for a couple months at a time, and have been on warfarin since '08. Things that I have assumed caused fluctuations in my INR have been:
Increased or decreased exercise (I'm talking about when I go on a steady, daily excercise regime and then stop)
Increased or decreased water intake.
Increase or decrease temperature - my inr has spiked in the first few really warm days of summer (or so it seems)
Again, these are assumptions, but my assumptions and reality can be miles apart. So as Toss and others have said - it's interesting to think about, but a far cry easier to change your warfarin dosage than it is to change your lifestyle habits or environment.
hugs
ferr
Unlike Dave, I worry more about getting to high than too low, but I get tested regularly, and adjusted. So I feel being compliant with my testing and my dosage is most important to managing my INR.