Diet and INR

My husband had massive heart attack end of Jan 2022 and had no prior symptoms. Completely collapsed with head injury and died for 25 mins. After multiple surgeries to open up arteries, he received LVAD on Feb 14. Stayed in ICU, then a drop down ICU, then private room then released to a Rehab hospital on March 16. Got him home on April 6. For awhile he had home health nurse drawing blood each week for his INR. Regulating meds for the INR is tough enough, but diet seems to be the key. We are lucky enough to have our son and his wife living with us temporarily but this has proved to be a blessing! My son can cook the correct foods to keep the INR where is supposed to be. He should be a nutritionist! Eating homemade soups, good meat, veggies, fruits, and a lot of Salad has really made a difference! We went through the pantry and threw away peanut butter, chips, salted crackers, peanuts, etc., all the bad stuff.

We didn't know what a difference any of this made until we went out of town for our daughter's wedding. There was the rehearsal dinner at a mexican restaurant, the day of the wedding we had subs at lunch, but the wedding dinner was all ITALIAN food. The next morning was the HOTEL breakfast BUFFET. The INR after the wedding was too high! We all panicked as we found out just how important the food it to my husband's health. 

From now on it is only good food, no processed food, buffets, salt, sugar, etc. INR yesterday was 2.0. Last week 2.6. I cannot stress enough to anyone struggling with their INR just how important this is.