Does anyone with AFIB NOT take blood thinners?

The afib is what causes the clots. Tachycardia by itself does not, I was told. My heart rate goes above 190 and I have a lot of symptoms when in afib. I was only having episodes once a year but recently had three in 5 weeks. I believe it is GI related for me. My bp also gets low which makes acute treatment difficult since diltiazen lowers bp, so they tend to put me in the hospital. MY episodes have lasted from 45 minutes to 7 hours. I worry about clots after 5 hours and they did an echo after the 7 hour one to check for clots.

If I had afib once a week I would consider a blood thinner, honestly.

Wowzer-.

The patients take medication, blood thinner, the doctors, cardiologists don't.
Doctors should always listen to their patients to decide on medications based on risks vs benefits

I don’t believe doctors always practice what they preach either. Like someone else said they push max treatment as a CYA. Litigious world cause bad decisions. I like to be conservative with treatment especially since I’ve had so many really bad side effects from meds and complications from procedures.

@windyshores that's a really high HR that I’m sure is scary. I really don’t like when my heart rhythm becomes erratic. I can feel it start and speed up then put on my pulse oximeter and the normally smooth and consistent sine wave is all over the place crazy and inconsistent.

I have had bouts of A-fib in the past. I was on Eliquis for about 2 years during which I didn’t have even one episode of A-fib. I asked my cardiologist if I could stop the Eliquis because my heart was doing well. He agreed, and told me to take one 350mg aspirin every day.
I have been fine.

I have decided that I am going to quit the blood thinner. CMS has denied me for watchman. So, that leaves me on blood thinners…forever? So, This is a decision that I do not know how to get my doc to go along with. I think I need a docs help to get off eliquis.

I am thinking that I will put turmeric back into my diet. (Was for inflammation).
For back ground. I have Afib so rarely that it took 8 years before any doc ever saw it. Today I have an episode about once or twice a month…on average. The whole thing last about 5 minutes. The irregular heart beat ends and the racing pulse starts. Never saw it higher than 190. In the ER they ran just about every test…Doc informed me then that I had no heart damage.

I do not object to the low level of metoprolol as I think it is keeping my heart rate down….but the eliquis has to go.

@californiazebra you mention erratic heartbeat. Is it atrial fibrillation? I have a Kardia , a small device that lets me know if it is afib. I believe smart watches will do that too. Or maybe you already know....

I had a friend who faced much the same choice and made a similar decision. Sadly, he is no longer with us, and it was not a pleasant way to go. How about an alternative. like Xarelto? I am on 20mg/day and tolerate it well. Costly, but I'm still here. Good Luck.

@windyshores
Afib has been diagnosed 3 times in the ER. The other times the symptoms and sine wave are the same so I’m assuming that’s also afib. Although my cardiologist has told me to go to the ER and he would meet me there, I’m not doing that on a regular basis and since I refuse meds and procedures there is no point. I should get Kardia Mobile just to check and see if it’s afib every time. It would be comforting if it’s not.

2.5 months ago, the day after I had been in afib I had something scary happen and we don’t know if it was a TIA because it was very brief. I was talking to my neighbor and suddenly my left arm from my elbow to fingertips had intense pins and needles, was going numb fast, felt like it was swelling and the palm of my hand turned red. I told my neighbor I wasn’t sure if I was about to have a heart attack or stroke but note that I’m allergic to NSAIDS. In about 25 seconds it was instantly 100% gone including the redness. No other symptoms but very scary. I’ve had neurological issues my whole life but nothing like that before. Why one location and my neuro stuff doesn’t stop suddenly like that. I went to my PCP a week later (didn’t feel like going to the ER and declining meds) and we did head and neck MRAs that were normal. I’ve had all cardiac checks in the past couple years.

I’m just so afraid of meds especially heart ones after my Multaq experience. I was promised no side effects with that. I’m always an outlier with stuff. I’m a poor metabolizer with many enzymes so meds tend to become toxic in my body and ineffective. I’m afraid I’ll be that person that bleeds to death just by taking a blood thinner. Too scary. The devil you know…

Also, since I have advanced breast cancer I guess I feel I only have to beat the afib stroke odds for a limited amount of time. Maybe I would make different decisions if I thought I were going to be around 20-30 more years. I know you have a wide array of medical issues too so I’m sure you understand just being tired of it all and wanting to avoid things. I’ve had nearly 300 medical appointments in just the last 3 years and that’s trying to ignore things. Breast cancer targeted meds are going better than expected but I know the data on those and I’m already in the lucky zone. I will check into Kardia though, thank you.

Some good news. I had decided I shouldn’t get another dog after my last one passed nearly a year ago but a good friend told me to adopt one and she’ll take it if/when I can’t care for it anymore. I’m picking up my rescue dog Tuesday! No more talking to spiders because they are the only other living creature in the house. Lol Will be fun to have a dog to walk with again. 🙂

Hello there, Just wondering why you want or need to stop Eliquis. Thank you.