Soph, none of us WANT a stroke.

4 months ago, while still on Xarelto, I had a piece of firewood I was cutting simply kick back into my leg just below my knee. It immediately began to turn blue and puff out. I went back home from the woods as I was not sure if the 2" bump after a minute would continue to bleed internally and if I would need to call 911... (it stopped at 2" bump but took over a month to go away).

Last week I was smashing 4 bags of dried portland cement with a hammer and missed; smashed my thumb. In a couple minutes it was an inch out and blue. Luckily I had decided to STOP xarelto the week before! I am sure if I was still on xarelto I would have had to go to the emergency room instead of having the blister stop at 1" bubble.

I started this thread back when I had a bout of Afib in February. I since learned from xcarelto that their product is at FULL STRENGTH in blood stream in a couple hours or taking the first pill! It takes a few days to peter out and stop thinning blood when stopped. I do not know why it took a week and what appears to be a thousand phone calls to get those answers! Anyway, I quit my blood thinner a couple weeks ago for 2 reasons: 1) I hit the 'donut hole' on insurance and cost would be again $ 400/month if I got a refill, and 2) I had no known Afib spell since February.

I could always tell when my Afib started. I confirmed it with one of the zillion FREE smart phone apps that plot your heartrate. These apps work on ALL smart phones - just download one and try it. It uses the built in phone camera: turns on that brite lite, you put your finger over it/lens and it illuminates your finger red and counts pulses. Most free apps also PLOT each pulse, so you can watch the pulse, the backstep, and see easily if Afib is happening or if the pulses are all consistent and none missing. When I had Afib, these programs could not even figure out the 140+ pulse/min rate and clearly showed the missing pulses in between. Anyone with Afib should not leave home without one of these free programs on their phone. I check my pulse on it 3-4 times a day...