Questions about Eliquis and Meds for Pain Relief

I have not been having fun. I can't tell you how much I drink a day. A full glass of water in the morning (maybe 10 oz), a cup of camomile tea at lunch and after dinner (20 oz total), and I sip throughout the day. Plus I cut back on salt. Between those two changes to my routine I wound up with low sodium so the hospital put me on a saline drip. My symptoms were the dizziness, confusion, inability to think or even drive. The hospital got my sodium level up to 132 and discharged me. I feel better, but am still a little dizzy. Now that I know the problem I hope that goes away as I get more salt into my system. I can at least function now.

I had some side effects with Xarelto, so the doc put me on Eliquis, but now I'm feeling dizzy on this too. At least I think it's the Eliquis. It's kind of like a trap. I am supposed to take it for my afib, and I can't go off it because I might get a blood clot if I do, so I keep taking it. I've been taking it for five days now. The first couple days I felt no effects. It was the same way with Xarelto. I was fine for a couple days, then started feeling very dizzy and had some eye issues too.

Hi cat mom, If I were you I would find it hard to believe that drinking what sounds like a normal amount of water and cutting back on salt could cause your sodium level to sink so low that you need to be hospitalized. The hospitals would be full of patients with your symptoms. Did you exercise and sweat a lot due to the heat maybe? I would seriously do your homework and see what else it could be. I checked out the side effects of Eliquis and sure enough there is a lot of bleeding, weakness and feeling faint but nothing about low sodium levels.
Check this out: Are you on any of these drugs: https://www.merckmanuals.com/en-ca/home/hormonal-and-metabolic-disorders/electrolyte-balance/hyponatremia-low-level-of-sodium-in-the-blood Why not ask your pharmacist to help you figure this out? They study drug interactions and side effects for 6 years in university.

I had some side effects with Xarelto, so the doc put me on Eliquis, but now I'm feeling dizzy on this too. At least I think it's the Eliquis. It's kind of like a trap. I am supposed to take it for my afib, and I can't go off it because I might get a blood clot if I do, so I keep taking it. I've been taking it for five days now. The first couple days I felt no effects. It was the same way with Xarelto. I was fine for a couple days, then started feeling very dizzy and had some eye issues too.

I went in to see my pharmacist yesterday but he was real busy and couldn't talk to me. Maybe next time. I don't know how all that happened. I can't explain it. I had been feeling dizzy, confused, disoriented, and feeling awful for days, and increasingly so. I was convinced it was the blood thinners but the ER docs told me it wasn't. That's when they admitted me. They thought something was going on with my heart that didn't show up on the EKG. I also had chest pain BTW. After a heart stress test and an echocardiagram they determined that it was low sodium. Low sodium causes the brain to swell, which produced the symptoms I was having. After about 18 hours on a saline drip, I started to feel better and they released me when my sodium level got up to 132. It's supposed to be at least 136. Now, when I feel those symptoms, I take some Himalayan salt crystals and wait it out. That worked yesterday. Also though, they told me I had an electrolyte imbalance and was supposed to pick up some Gatorade. Maybe it's all this that initially caused my heart to go into afib because I've been told salt is a conductor. Anyway, one step at at time to get this sorted out. I just want to feel good again. I haven't felt right since this started and don't know why. It's all been so much to absorb.

@catmom777 Hi catmom... I love that name. I have 3 kitties. One of the mistakes we can make as patients is to think that there is a causal relationship with something as in your example of linking your symptoms to a prescribed drug. While it might be true; it also might not. There are many variables in body chemistry, and a real scientific experiment has to eliminate other variables to be valid. Electrolytes are very important because all your muscles and nerve impulses are dependent on electricity that this generated by the charged ions crossing cell membranes. Your body needs sodium and potassium for this which are both positively charged. Potassium is absorbed because the sodium is kicked out of the cell by a "sodium pump" which by removing positively charged ions creates a void that is filled when the positively charged potassium ions enter the cell. The sodium crosses the cell membranes easily, but not potassium which is why your cells have to work to kick out sodium so they can absorb potassium. Both are necessary in the right amounts. Listen to your body and how you felt after the saline infusion. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body, and it generates it's own electrical signals to coordinate the heart beat. It's like a precision dance, and the atria have to pass the blood to the ventricles so they can send it out to the rest of the body. Thanks for sharing your experience. My elderly mom takes Eloquis and doesn't have symptoms of dizziness. there can be many other reasons for it too, some drug related, some physical problems in the inner ear, and sometimes problems with the spine that causes muscle spasms that move the upper cervical vertebrae which affects nerves and causes dizziness. That one I know about and have that in my own health experience. It's good to ask questions as a patient, and learn from it.

Being a good health detective is a must because doctors don't have the time to figure it all out for you.
I would love to know what other meds you are on, cat mom. Have you gone on sites that give reasons for sodium to drop. I have and it's worth delving into it all (with a positive attitude of "I'm going to figure this out and beat this, damnit!".
That's how I am working on my 31 rounds of antibiotics in 3 years 3 months issue...and so far, touch wood, with lots of lifestyle changes and a few supplements, a new kind of estrogen (only 2 weeks in however) no return of the bladder infections. Usually by now, I am into the next UTI so I am very encouraged...and even proud of myself.
And as I told you, with exercise I beat my Afib. The cardiologist said it was impossible and that it would return (after almost 2 years on strong beta blockers) and as long as I kept FAR away from stimulants AND exercised, I have been fine...for 24 years now!
On my own with plenty of research, I also cured hives that were so bad that they required antihistamines. The 3 specialists I saw said no one knows why people get hives and that I would likely have to take antihistamines for the rest of my life. I hunted for a cure and finally I found it. A local health store owner who is also a licensed pharmacist, gave me the solution. What was it? Eliminating carbs (so basically meat, eggs, veggies...which today is a kept diet) and about 6 weeks later reintroducing rice, bread, potatoes, pasta very slowly and not much of it. Even now if I have something very sweet like a birthday cake, I will start to itch.
So I HIGHLY recommend spending a lot of time hunting and collecting information. Copy and paste in Word and formulate questions you can ask your pharmacist, doctor and eventually cardiologist.
Dizziness and weakness ARE side effects of Eliquis (look it up) and didn't those symptoms start once you started taking that drug? Or when you had your 'episodes', were you also experiencing weakness and dizziness? I am almost sure you wrote that the symptoms coincided with the start of the Eliquis...
Think positively like you are in a confusing maze and on your way to reaching the end of it and coming out into the open where the sun, clarity and fresh air await you. You can do it cat mom!

@catmom777 Hi catmom... I love that name. I have 3 kitties. One of the mistakes we can make as patients is to think that there is a causal relationship with something as in your example of linking your symptoms to a prescribed drug. While it might be true; it also might not. There are many variables in body chemistry, and a real scientific experiment has to eliminate other variables to be valid. Electrolytes are very important because all your muscles and nerve impulses are dependent on electricity that this generated by the charged ions crossing cell membranes. Your body needs sodium and potassium for this which are both positively charged. Potassium is absorbed because the sodium is kicked out of the cell by a "sodium pump" which by removing positively charged ions creates a void that is filled when the positively charged potassium ions enter the cell. The sodium crosses the cell membranes easily, but not potassium which is why your cells have to work to kick out sodium so they can absorb potassium. Both are necessary in the right amounts. Listen to your body and how you felt after the saline infusion. Your heart is the most important muscle in your body, and it generates it's own electrical signals to coordinate the heart beat. It's like a precision dance, and the atria have to pass the blood to the ventricles so they can send it out to the rest of the body. Thanks for sharing your experience. My elderly mom takes Eloquis and doesn't have symptoms of dizziness. there can be many other reasons for it too, some drug related, some physical problems in the inner ear, and sometimes problems with the spine that causes muscle spasms that move the upper cervical vertebrae which affects nerves and causes dizziness. That one I know about and have that in my own health experience. It's good to ask questions as a patient, and learn from it.

Thanks Jennifer. All that makes sense. I got out of whack somehow and my heart let me know it wasn't happy about it. Drinking an electrolyte drink right now.

I had some side effects with Xarelto, so the doc put me on Eliquis, but now I'm feeling dizzy on this too. At least I think it's the Eliquis. It's kind of like a trap. I am supposed to take it for my afib, and I can't go off it because I might get a blood clot if I do, so I keep taking it. I've been taking it for five days now. The first couple days I felt no effects. It was the same way with Xarelto. I was fine for a couple days, then started feeling very dizzy and had some eye issues too.