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@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy I restarted my Eliquis and 4 days later had severe recital bleeding, requiring a 4 day ICU stay and 3 blood transfusions. No doctereill tell me when to start the Eliquis again I have not been in AFib for 2 years and am trying to figure out what to do! Watchman has been suggested. As for now I will stay off another week til I try to be my own doctor and figure it out!!
Replies to "@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy..."
@terrigfield You mention a situation that I have yet to see mentioned in these groups. The process of reversal of Eliqus in an emergency situation. From what I've seen Eliqus is still working 24 hrs after the last dose. What little I have been able to read about the reversal agents available it doesn't sound that readily available and also not that fast acting like the one available for Coumadin. I've gotten to keeping a Quick Clotting kit in my car in hope that I would be able to use it if necessary.
So as good as it is in preventing clots there is another side to it like anything else in life.
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@terrigfield If you can stand the learning from a non-medical person, but one who has done a lot of research on AF and its wide variants of care, a two-year stint truly (this word is important....truly) free of AF should put you in the clear. But that word 'truly' gets in the way. And so does any other comorbidity lurking, maybe undiscovered in you, that puts you at risk for thromboembolic stoke. So, if you know 'you're good', and you are certain you have no short runs of AF of an hour or more (the literature says 48 hrs, but I cannot buy that....a run of an hour is going to be a solid hour of poor circulation in the LAA!), then you almost certainly should be safe to stop taking a DOAC like Eliquis.
I must ethically add, once again, I'm NOT a doctor or a specialist nurse. But looking at it logically, Dr. Natale will agree to let you stop taking apixaban if a six-month post-ablation-with-Watchman has a TEE (trans-esophageal echocardiogram) showing no leakage from the LAA (left atrial appendage). He would ask you to take a baby aspirin once a day, however. So, if the vaunted Dr. Natale says you're clear after no AF and a TEE says you're LAA is not leaking, you can safely stop the apixaban.
Now the logic requires some refinement. About any lurking comorbidities, or if you have no Watchman, or if you're asymptomatic and don't really know when/if you've had a run of AF, it might be a little too risky for you to stop on your own. In your case, with the little I know of you, you're taking a chance. Strike off all the caveats and I think you should be in clear. If even one of those criteria is left with an unchecked box beside it, you have a running risk of a stroke.