Economizing on Blood Thinners

@realitytest, I think I would do some research on the specific pharmacy you use when it comes to ordering online. I understand the cost factor but there's also the what you really get when you order online part of the equation.

-- Choosing a safe online pharmacy: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/topics/buying-using-drug-health-products-safely/safe-use-online-pharmacies.html
-- So-Called “Canadian” Pharmacies are a Danger to Consumers, NABP Reports: https://nabp.pharmacy/news/news-releases/called-canadian-pharmacies-danger-consumers-nabp-reports/

@reality test, perhaps you'd consider Coumadin (Warfarin) as your anticoagulant. I've been on it for several years, without fear or consequence or high costs. As a Medicare recipient, I am charged 0 for my Coumadin. This medication requires regular lab tests to keep track of the level of anticoatulation to be sure that it remains stable at a healthy level. The burden of going to the lab every few weeks is more than offset, in my view, by the fact that the antidote for Warfarin -- Vitamin K -- is readily available in health service facilities and almost without cost.

Martin Jensen, thank you for your very informative words. I. was especially interested in your comments about vitamin K as a bleed reversal chemical (although I will add that one of the great drawbacks of Coumadin for me, is being required to greatly limit green vegetables and even red wine. 🙁 )

In fact, at the moment I am able to afford my Xarelto (name brand) from a Certified Canadian pharmacy. especially with my cardiologist's kind donation of samples when I visit him (a month+ at a time).

Moreover I am temporarily skipping Xarelto altogether, because of the unfortunate new diagnosis of wet macular macular degeneration a blinding eye disease).which is worsened by blood thinners (this is with the permission of my cardiologist). My goal is with the help of an electrophysiologist, to control my AFIB through another modality - ablation, pacemaker, laser treatment and any other that seems most suitable. Ordinarily I wouldn't be recommended for such inferior treatment given my relatively moderate AFIB, but in the interest of preserving my sightedness as long as possible. I want to prolong my vision (central vision) for what may be years longer.

As a professional artist this is especially important to me.

I am so with you, I want my vision too. If it means doing a Watchman, then I guess I may have to.

@realitytest, just to make sure others who read your comment get another view of Vitamin K effects for those of us who take Coumadin (Warfarin) to prevent blood clots, my own experience doesn't require that I "greatly limit green vegetables and even red wine." I do take care to manage my intake of both green vegetables and red wine, but to the extent that I have them in my diet, my daily dose of Coumadin was adjusted upward a bit to overcome the Vitamin K antidote. It took a few months to identify a good mixture of Vitamin K foods and Coumadin, but having identified that mixture several years ago, I'm on a stable diet and medication now. As to the alternatives you are considering, I applaud your willingness and that of your medical team to try them. I have several friends who have to good effect, reducing arrhythmia and avoiding blood coagulation, and I've never heard them refer to their alternative as "inferior treatment." In fact, they think the latest anticoagulants are "inferior" for one reason or another. Martin

Hi, Martin.

When I said "inferior" I was referring to the effectiveness of the AFIB treatment - and (of course) only from what I've been told by doctors and Google. There are statistics on line comparing them. Then too being able to avoid an invasive treatment. (surgical) is generally considered desirable from the POV of safety. Besides that, ablation, "watchman" pace-maker seem to require replacement periodically and monitoring in a way the oral meds do not. However I will gladly undergo them, provided my EP doctor recommends whichever as safe for me, in order to preserve what I can of my vision. (Still in a state of disbelief...)

After my knee joint replacement I was prescribed Coumadin for a while, and I DID find a happy medium of salad consumption and red wine. As I recall, most important was keeping our consumption stable.

Regards to you and all coping with these problems!

Glad to finally get some encouragement for my last ditch effort to delay the onset of blindness (peripheral vision, Fooey!).

Have you arrived at using the Watchman protocol and if so how and why?
Best to you!

The important thing with spinach etc. on Coumadin is to keep the amount approximately the same each day so that the dose matches the K in the diet. My mother has dementia and is in assisted living and this is impossible, but she still manages a pretty stable INR.

There is a home meter you can use to check your INR. Very easy and the meter can send the results through your phone to your doctor. Slick setup!

I like that, hope I can do this procedure!