Newbie here.. a long post

[Guest guest]

Hi.. I am a female, widow, overweight, high bloodpressure. 66 year old

artist with AF.

Diagnosed 15 months ago after many years of holter monitors, " maybe

panic attacks " emergency rooms, every med under the sun .. an a myriad

of other health problems.

Hospitalized DEc2005 pulse rate 189 and up for about 13 hours.. stayed

in Cardiac CCU for 5 days.. started on Lovenox shot,.coumadin ,

Pacerone, digitalis added to my already Toprol and Cardizem.. had

cardioversion Jan 5 2006..

Stayed in nsr ( i think) (Took Pacerone one more month, took myself

off, continued coumadin till June and stopped ) until theHurricane

Katrina and I guess the stress kicked me back into AF.. added lorazepam

as needed, increased Cardizem to 240 mg daily.. . back in hospital in

Dec pulse rate 150. same routine.. Jan 2006 stress test ws " fine( next

day I couldnt even get out of bed, fatigued, short of breath. Went

backto cardiologist who said " You are a puzzle!)

Cardiologistprescribed Pacerone again, had immediant unbearable hedaches

and digeastive problems , sweats, fatigue.. change to Rythmol( $386.00..

I live on SS of 1020.00 month, just got prescription coverage,, had no

insurance since 1987)

Thought i was going to die. explosive diahrrea, extreme fatigue, woke

first night and could not close my fist, joints all painful. foot

neuropathy, nauseated, pain behind eyes.. so, I called and said,.

Nomore.. had Ekg yesterday,and will have cardioversion this Tuesday

again.

I live in a rural area, takes me 3 hours of driving in baton Rouge

traffic since Katrina to go toCoumadin clinic, park, wait, drive home..

and that make me a wreck, sitting bumper to bumper in traffic on the

interstate..so I have said I will not come to the coumadin clinic more

than once a month //I am eligible forHome Health care to do coumadin

level for 60 more days.. I have applied for a home machine(5,000) and

have letters from my Doctors requesting it. doubt it will be okayed

so my question is.. If I dont stay in NSR after cardioversion and

ablation isnt an option for me( many reasons) .. can I expect any

quality of life if I just take coumadin and live with AF ? I have no

other heart problems,everything is " structurally okay " I cant take beta

blockers .. do okay with Cardizem and digitalis. I also am bi-polar, in

a remission .. staying level now with only occassional lorazepam for

mild panic attacks( some claustrophobia, now due to a closed MRI. that

I didnt do well with July 2005)

sorry for such a long post!

[Guest guest]

I am sorry, I forgot to sign it!

one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not drinking

coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

allowed either??

Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

[Guest guest]

Try decaff both coffee a tea, not too much of it though. I cannot tell the

difference.

Hmm one of my favourite films with Wayne entitled Horse solders in

centred around Baton Rouge.

C In cold Hornchurch UK

I am sorry, I forgot to sign it!

one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not drinking

coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

allowed either??

Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

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List owner: AFIBsupport-owner

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send a blank email to AFIBsupport-help

Nothing in this message should be considered as medical advice, or should be

acted upon without consultation with one's physician.

[Guest guest]

You can get decaf green tea. I decaf green tea with min every day.

>

> I am sorry, I forgot to sign it!

>

> one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not drinking

> coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

> allowed either??

> Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

>

[Guest guest]

And I can't type! I have decaf green tea with mint every day.

> >

> > I am sorry, I forgot to sign it!

> >

> > one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not drinking

> > coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

> > allowed either??

> > Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

> >

>

[Guest guest]

I stopped having green tea because I thought it was on the avoid list for

coumadin.

Re: Newbie here.. a long post

And I can't type! I have decaf green tea with mint every day.

> >

> > I am sorry, I forgot to sign it!

> >

> > one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not drinking

> > coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

> > allowed either??

> > Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

> >

>

Web Page - http://www.afibsupport.com

List owner: AFIBsupport-owner For help on how to use the

group, including how to drive it via email, send a blank email to

AFIBsupport-help

Nothing in this message should be considered as medical advice, or should be

acted upon without consultation with one's physician.

[Guest guest]

> I stopped having green tea because I thought it was on the avoid

list for

> coumadin.

>

>

> > > one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not

drinking

> > > coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

> > > allowed either??

> > > Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

Judi & :

Green tea has about 1/2 the caffeine of black tea which has about

1/2

the caffeine of drip coffee. If you use the tea leaves and not the

bags you should rinse them for 30 seconds or so with nearly boiling

water to get them to open up and to rinse whatever off whatever

residue is left from the picking and handling. The rinsing removes

most of the caffeine but certainly not all. I use Lung Ching

Dragonwell Spring tea when I can get it and love it a lot. Most

herbal teas have no caffeine at all.

Having said all this, I don't think you have to give it up at all.

If

you drink it regularly you can easily adjust your dosage of warfarin

to compensate. You do need some Vitamin K and green tea is a good

antioxidant.

I and my cardiologist don't think you have to give up any foods

while

on warfarin. Just be consistent with whatever you eat and you can

take the right amount of warfarin to keep your INR where your doc

wants it.

I'm 190 pounds, take a lot of Gingko, fish oil, Vitamin E, green tea

and all the veggies I want and my INR stays in the 2 - 3 range on 2

mg/day of warfarin.

Here is a chart of the caffeine content of various fun foods and

drinks:

Double espresso (2oz) 45-100 mg

Brewed coffee (8 oz) 60-120 mg

Instant coffee (8 oz) 70 mg

Decaf coffee (8 oz) 1-5 mg

Tea - black (8 oz) 45 mg

Tea - green (8 oz) 20 mg

Tea - white (8 oz) 15 mg

Coca Cola (12 oz can) 34 mg

Pepsi (12 oz can) 38 mg

Barq's Root Beer (12 oz can) 22 mg

7-up (12 oz) 0 mg

Chocolate milk (8 oz) 4 mg

Dark chocolate (1 oz) 20 mg

Milk chocolate (1 oz) 6 mg

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt (8 oz) 85 mg

Note that green tea is about half that of a can of Pepsi or Coke.

Gordon

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the info, Gordon!

Re: Newbie here.. a long post

> I stopped having green tea because I thought it was on the avoid

list for

> coumadin.

>

>

> > > one more question, what do y'all do to substitute for not

drinking

> > > coffee.. I was drinking herb and green tea, no know they arent

> > > allowed either??

> > > Judi in Denham Springs, Louisiana( just East of Baton Rouge)

Judi & :

Green tea has about 1/2 the caffeine of black tea which has about

1/2

the caffeine of drip coffee. If you use the tea leaves and not the bags you

should rinse them for 30 seconds or so with nearly boiling water to get them

to open up and to rinse whatever off whatever residue is left from the

picking and handling. The rinsing removes most of the caffeine but

certainly not all. I use Lung Ching Dragonwell Spring tea when I can get it

and love it a lot. Most herbal teas have no caffeine at all.

Having said all this, I don't think you have to give it up at all.

If

you drink it regularly you can easily adjust your dosage of warfarin to

compensate. You do need some Vitamin K and green tea is a good antioxidant.

I and my cardiologist don't think you have to give up any foods while on

warfarin. Just be consistent with whatever you eat and you can take the

right amount of warfarin to keep your INR where your doc wants it.

I'm 190 pounds, take a lot of Gingko, fish oil, Vitamin E, green tea and all

the veggies I want and my INR stays in the 2 - 3 range on 2 mg/day of

warfarin.

Here is a chart of the caffeine content of various fun foods and

drinks:

Double espresso (2oz) 45-100 mg

Brewed coffee (8 oz) 60-120 mg

Instant coffee (8 oz) 70 mg

Decaf coffee (8 oz) 1-5 mg

Tea - black (8 oz) 45 mg

Tea - green (8 oz) 20 mg

Tea - white (8 oz) 15 mg

Coca Cola (12 oz can) 34 mg

Pepsi (12 oz can) 38 mg

Barq's Root Beer (12 oz can) 22 mg

7-up (12 oz) 0 mg

Chocolate milk (8 oz) 4 mg

Dark chocolate (1 oz) 20 mg

Milk chocolate (1 oz) 6 mg

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt (8 oz) 85 mg

Note that green tea is about half that of a can of Pepsi or Coke.

Gordon

Web Page - http://www.afibsupport.com

List owner: AFIBsupport-owner For help on how to use the

group, including how to drive it via email, send a blank email to

AFIBsupport-help

Nothing in this message should be considered as medical advice, or should be

acted upon without consultation with one's physician.

[Guest guest]

> Thanks for the info, Gordon!

>

>

>

: More on green tea, regarding Vitamin K content this time:

Green and black tea leaves are quite high in vitamin K. However, the

critical point to understand is that vitamin K is a fat soluble

vitamin, not water-soluble, and thus only small amounts of this

vitamin are actually transferred from the tea leaves into the

resultant tea that one drinks (1). You may actually see the data

showing the difference between the vitamin K content of tea leaves

and the resultant tea (1428 micrograms/100 grams of dry tea leaves

(which is a lot of tea!) vs. 0.03 micrograms per 3.5 ounce serving)

at the following web site:

http://www.coumadin.com/consumer/INT_VitaminK1.asp - click on

beverages, then scroll down to see the vitamin K content of green

tea.

For those of us who brew green tea from tea leaves, we probably use

one gram or less per cup so a brewed cup might have 14 mcg of

Vitamin K or less as the source above says that much of the Vitamin

K doesn't get transferred; and I don't know anyone who eats tea

leaves.

Gordon

[Guest guest]

HI TO YOU ALL,

Before you all get concerned regarding Vit K and wafarin, I would keep to

your usual diet, wait and see you INR results for a few weeks. If the INR

results show a fluctuating INR then look at your diet and try and work out

what is causing it to go up and down.

Certain drugs do cause a shift in INR levels but your pharmacy should let

you know before they dispense the product.

My top tip if your taking many drugs especially Doefeltilde or Amiodarone,

then anything you take always, always asked the Pharmacy if its ok.

Just think the dr deals with the same patients day in day out and he/her

thinks they have informed you about drug reactions, it just slips there

mind.

C

> Thanks for the info, Gordon!

>

>

>

: More on green tea, regarding Vitamin K content this time:

[Guest guest]

Hi

I find that I am concerned about my INR because of a mistake made my an

on call doctor, I had some blood in my urine, the doctor said it was

most probably due to a kidney infection and nothing to do with the

warfarin.

I was a little concerned at I was still bleeding the next day, went to

have my blood tested and my INR was 10.5. They decided to admit me to

hospital. Since then I tend to check with the pharmacist as there

knowledge is more specialized that the GP.

I am not on any other meds at present and my INR seams to be bouncing

around either too high or too low.

ine

RE: Re: Newbie here.. a long post

HI TO YOU ALL,

Before you all get concerned regarding Vit K and wafarin, I would keep

to

your usual diet, wait and see you INR results for a few weeks. If the

INR

results show a fluctuating INR then look at your diet and try and work

out

what is causing it to go up and down.

Certain drugs do cause a shift in INR levels but your pharmacy should

let

you know before they dispense the product.

My top tip if your taking many drugs especially Doefeltilde or

Amiodarone,

then anything you take always, always asked the Pharmacy if its ok.

Just think the dr deals with the same patients day in day out and he/her

thinks they have informed you about drug reactions, it just slips there

mind.

C

> Thanks for the info, Gordon!

>

>

>

: More on green tea, regarding Vitamin K content this time:

Web Page - http://www.afibsupport.com

List owner: AFIBsupport-owner

For help on how to use the group, including how to drive it via email,

send a blank email to AFIBsupport-help

Nothing in this message should be considered as medical advice, or

should be acted upon without consultation with one's physician.