Hi,

I know some people watch their vitamin K intake. I don't do that. I've been on warfarin for almost 7 years. I eat what I feel like eating because honestly, I don't think people's diets vary that wildly week to week. My INR has been pretty stable over the years. If you are changing your overall diet, I would just maybe test more frequently when you first start your diet change to see if it messes with your INR. If it does, then your doc will adjust your dosage to accommodate that. I do think too just letting your doc know you're changing your diet is a good idea because then she won't freak out if all of a sudden your INR starts changing.

As far as drinks, I do drink, usually a few on the weekends. Doesn't impact my INR. It's more a matter of not getting loaded so you don't fall, hurt yourself, because then you have to worry about bleeding. You could talk to your doc too about drinking. Most are ok with having a couple a week or so.

I don't do home monitoring, but I know several people here who do and really like it, so hopefully they'll chime in.

You know, when I had a second clot, I was put on warfarin for life, and honestly, I'm ok with it too. It really hasn't been that big of a deal. I still do everything I did before being on warfarin. I think if you're going to be on the stuff for ever, you have to sort of surrender a bit and that helps relax about the whole thing.

I've also been on warfarin for several years, essentially. I came off twice because I didn't want to be a "lifer" but I promptly clotted again both times and so here I am now.

When I was just temporarily on the medication I too was willing to lower my K intake to try to help stabilize my INR (I had huge problems keeping my INR up during my first round of anticoagulation, and although I had basically eliminated all vegetables, I still had to take 15 mg daily and didn't stay above 2.0 - doctors now think my postpartum hormones were messing with the way my body dealt with warfarin.) When I went on warfarin the second time, I had decided I wouldn't allow my medication to rule my diet, so basically I stopped worrying about what I ate. I too am of the opinion that we all of us basically eat consistently. I mean, those of us who eat lots of veggies normally pretty much do that all the time, and those who don't eat that way most all of the time. I do not worry about counting out how many micrograms of vitamin K each meal has. As long as we can stay reasonably consistent over the course of every few days, that should be good enough. Surprisingly, my INR was so much more stable the second time I started warfarin, and I took considerably less than I had when I was cutting everything out. I eat now just as I normally do by nature, which is lots of veggies and proper salads (not iceberg lettuce, but real greens), and I only have to take 10 mg daily now, and my INR stays amazingly consistent. So my personal experience has been that NOT worrying about what I eat is the way to go, as long as I don't go too nuts with the pot of greens I make every once in awhile. You can be consistent without thinking about every single thing you put in your mouth. Everyone has to figure out what works for them individually, though. Some people like counting it all out and feel in control, although for the life of me I personally can't imagine living like that forever.

I used to have alcoholic drinks occasionally as well with no problems with my INR, and I never drink very much so I didn't really need to worry about stumbling around and so forth. I did recently read that one of the worries about alcohol and warfarin is that if someone drinks really consistently, it can increase their chances of gastrointestinal bleeding, so that's usually what doctors are more concerned about than the occasional drink. If warfarin were the only issue I had, I'd still drink occasionally, but now I have heart meds too, and those don't respond so nicely to alcohol.

As much as I tried to come off warfarin, once I knew it was for good, I was able to surrender to it as well, and honestly it doesn't bother me to be on it. I don't let it run my life, and basically it's not a factor in anything which is a limit to me. And like you said, being on it certainly beats the alternative when we're at high risk for a recurrence.

Wow! Thank you so much for the detailed responses. They're both really helpful. I've been pretty fortunate with my INR being pretty steady. I'm also fortunate that I go to a coag. clinic, and they are so helpful, and have great communication skills. I'll let them know that I want to normalize my eating patterns. I've eaten more iceberg lettuce in the last two months than in my entire life. I'm looking forward to some real salads. : )