Continued from my previous post regarding stopping my dose of warfarin. Usually if my INR is high then they try to reduce my dose by 1mg.  This can take a bit of time to come down doing it this way.  I wonder how quickly this will reduce my dose and then how quickly I will return to normal… HA! Is there such a thing now?  Normal?

Half-life of warfarin

I don’t have another appointment for a few days.  I would imagine it will take a bit of time to settle back.  Actually, I’m not 100% sure what the half-life of Warfarin is.  Let me check…   There’s a range of information out there but it looks like the half-life is between 20 to 60 hours. The maximum effect of stopping the dose is within the first 48 hours of taking it. It then stays in your system for the next 5 days.

What do I mean by half life?  This is the time it takes for your medication to be reduced by half in your system.  It doesn’t matter what the medication and the dose, the half-life of the medication will always be the same.

How does dropping one dose affect me?

In dropping one dose does not mean that I won’t have any warfarin in my system but will have less.  This is one thing worth knowing. In case you miss a dose, or have received a bad cut and need to reduce the bleeding.

What other ways can reduce my INR?

There is a vitamin K injection which can reverse bleeding if you have a serious cut.  A medical professional would have to make the call on if this was needed.

I am aware of bandages which help cuts clot quicker.  My neighbour had been on Apixaban and Aspirin and had a bad fall.  They used special bandages with clotting agents in them at the hospital which put me on the search for these.  I now have a Trauma Pack from QuikClot in the front of my car incase of emergencies.  It has a full pack required for accidents.  These are available online.  Have a look at the Quikclot website https://quikclot.com/QuikClot/About-QuikClot for more info.

INR update

Okay an update on my INR which I have done through my home self-testing kit Coagucheck.  It’s 2.9 wow that’s a big drop in one day.  It’s a 1.4 drop!  So the interesting thing will be to take it again in a couple of days and see what it’s sitting at.  Certainly stopping one dose has brought it down quickly.  I am not sure that food can do that so quickly.

Have you ever had to miss a dose of warfarin?  How far out your therapeutic range were you when you had to stop a dose?  How have you and your GP managed your INR?