I can not take steroids as on warferin

What utter rubbish! What on earth made the doctor come up with that sort of comment. I take sintrom (an anticoagulant very similar to warfarin) and also take pred. I know several ladies who take both pred and warfarin and who are likely to be on BOTH for life.

What they are PROBABLY talking about is this:

"Warfarin & Corticosteroids

New data has emerged indicating a significant interaction between warfarin (Coumadin) and oral corticosteroids (prednisone, prednisolone). It is thought that corticosteroids alter the hepatic metabolism of warfarin resulting in either a decrease or an increase in INR values. Changes in INR’s may occur between 2 and 20 days after starting a corticosteroid. The effect on warfarin levels in some patients can be extreme with INR’s increasing from a therapeutic range to greater than 5.

Monitoring of INR’s is recommended if these drugs are coadministered."

All it means is that you will need to readjust your dose of warfarin after starting on the pred, just like you did at the beginning and possibly have monthly checks rather than 3-monthly ones for a while. You shouldn't just be given pred and left to get on with it without being monitored. My INR is checked monthly and the only thing it does is go down not up!

No doubt they have a programme that signals interactions but they didn't bother to check exactly how it works. Go back and show them that quote - it is from a Canadian Pharmacy Newsletter but I can't put in the link or it will disappear. However, if you go to your pharmacy and ask the pharmacist (not the counter staff, the pharmacist) they will confirm that and possibly contact your doctor to explain it.

Carol, you have my greatest sympathy. I hope you listen to Eileen, get yourself informed and get tough. You need help, and sometimes that means beginning by helping yourself. Doctors often appear to be out of their depth these days, though to be fair they can't know everything. Take courage, get strong and ask for what you need.

(Not that I'm great at this, but I'm learning, from Eileen and others.)

I'm' also on warfarin for life and now prednisolone since being diagnosed with PMR last October 2013.

As well as Adcal-D and alendronic acid. M y only problem is diarrhea possibly caused by the

Omeprazole 20mgs taken once daily. I have a good doctor IF I can get to see him or even speak

on the phone. i have Atrial fibrillation taking digoxin and bisoprolol, and a pacemaker! Plenty to be

getting on with,I might add!!... But the point is one CAN mix warfarin with pred.and my INR shot up to start with but is steady now around 1.9 to 2.5 checking it every month.

Do hope all works out quickly for you..

.

I was on both steroids and Warfarin following a DVT some years ago. As it happened, I was lucky and was only on Warfarin for 6 months, although I was warned at the beginning that it might be for life. No-one on either side of the medical fence made any kind of issue about the two. I was simply monitored as usual.