But my risk of stroke is low since I have afib once a year. I would love to have short term blood thinners (a week or two) if my episode is longer than 5.5 hours but an echocardiogam was used to make sure no clots. My mother is on Coumadin and has so many problems with bleeding, and anemia as a result. There is risk of bleeding in GI tract or brain. But yeah, if I had more frequent afib with higher risk of stroke, I would prefer blood thinners to stroke. I am delaying them as long as I can and still have afib once a year. That could change over time. MY first episode was 2015.