@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy I restarted my Eliquis and 4 days later had severe recital bleeding, requiring a 4 day ICU stay and 3 blood transfusions. No doctereill tell me when to start the Eliquis again I have not been in AFib for 2 years and am trying to figure out what to do! Watchman has been suggested. As for now I will stay off another week til I try to be my own doctor and figure it out!!
@terrigfield You mention a situation that I have yet to see mentioned in these groups. The process of reversal of Eliqus in an emergency situation. From what I've seen Eliqus is still working 24 hrs after the last dose. What little I have been able to read about the reversal agents available it doesn't sound that readily available and also not that fast acting like the one available for Coumadin. I've gotten to keeping a Quick Clotting kit in my car in hope that I would be able to use it if necessary.
So as good as it is in preventing clots there is another side to it like anything else in life.
Hardly as knowledgeable as gloaming, as a layman I wondered for what condition were you taking Eliquis, a blood thinner? Is it wise to have been on it at all preceding a “cutting” procedure? And the rule is that only the Eliquis prescriber should say when to stop it. Who was that? I took E. for a full course due to a leg clot. Yes it sucks but the clot disappeared completely in weeks. Might your healed H. have developed a hemorrhage that burst on straining? (Cleveland Clinic). Our 34 YO daughter has AFiB and is recommended and is considering the new Maze procedure. Please get better. We’ll pray for that.
@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy I restarted my Eliquis and 4 days later had severe recital bleeding, requiring a 4 day ICU stay and 3 blood transfusions. No doctereill tell me when to start the Eliquis again I have not been in AFib for 2 years and am trying to figure out what to do! Watchman has been suggested. As for now I will stay off another week til I try to be my own doctor and figure it out!!
@terrigfield If you can stand the learning from a non-medical person, but one who has done a lot of research on AF and its wide variants of care, a two-year stint truly (this word is important....truly) free of AF should put you in the clear. But that word 'truly' gets in the way. And so does any other comorbidity lurking, maybe undiscovered in you, that puts you at risk for thromboembolic stoke. So, if you know 'you're good', and you are certain you have no short runs of AF of an hour or more (the literature says 48 hrs, but I cannot buy that....a run of an hour is going to be a solid hour of poor circulation in the LAA!), then you almost certainly should be safe to stop taking a DOAC like Eliquis.
I must ethically add, once again, I'm NOT a doctor or a specialist nurse. But looking at it logically, Dr. Natale will agree to let you stop taking apixaban if a six-month post-ablation-with-Watchman has a TEE (trans-esophageal echocardiogram) showing no leakage from the LAA (left atrial appendage). He would ask you to take a baby aspirin once a day, however. So, if the vaunted Dr. Natale says you're clear after no AF and a TEE says you're LAA is not leaking, you can safely stop the apixaban.
Now the logic requires some refinement. About any lurking comorbidities, or if you have no Watchman, or if you're asymptomatic and don't really know when/if you've had a run of AF, it might be a little too risky for you to stop on your own. In your case, with the little I know of you, you're taking a chance. Strike off all the caveats and I think you should be in clear. If even one of those criteria is left with an unchecked box beside it, you have a running risk of a stroke.
Just to clarify @kevkat73 your afib is continuous. I have two hours once a year. The original poster has paroxysmal afib, which occurs at times rather than continuously. It is not clear how often or for how long @lenmayo has afib. I just wanted to offer a different view point, which both my cardiologists have signed off on.
I don't know what you mean by "mild afib." Either it is afib or not afib and the stroke risk comes from afib.
The fact that I end up in the hospital or even the ICU is because of low blood pressure and the way treatment of afib further lowers it. But my risk isn't any greater because of the apparent seriousness of the episodes. They are very infrequent and short in duration.
I am seeking short term anticoagulation from my next appointment, and guidelines on how long an episode has to be to require anti-coagulation. There are huge discrepancies on what duration is said to be dangerous for stroke; a few minutes to 48 hours.
@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy I restarted my Eliquis and 4 days later had severe recital bleeding, requiring a 4 day ICU stay and 3 blood transfusions. No doctereill tell me when to start the Eliquis again I have not been in AFib for 2 years and am trying to figure out what to do! Watchman has been suggested. As for now I will stay off another week til I try to be my own doctor and figure it out!!
I’m allergic to Eliquis. Found that out the hard way. After less than a day I had phlegm so thick I couldn’t breathe and severe gastro gas and bloating. Then Afib a few hours later. I stayed on the Eliquis a little over a week because the cardiologist said it’s not the Eliquis. Then I got confused and dementia like. The few hours a day I was alert it decided to stop the Eliquis on my own and find a new cardiologist. Sadly the only blood thinner I’m not allergic to to to warfarin. Even then I take only a tiny amount before my system goes wacky.
FYI most of the bad reactions from the Eliquis faded after a month except the gastro issues. If I get a gas bubble i get Afib so my food choices are very limited. Acupuncture for my anxiety (I never had before) and to help with the heart. This has helped a lot.
Pat, In the past, I had afib severe. Then last year started up again. It was caffeine and only takes less than one half cup coffee from the US. But never took Eliquis, and never will. I have learned to never take meds without investigating the side effects first and end up taking none. I search for the root cause, and do what I can to eliminate that. And if you have GI upset or indigestion, examine what and what combinations you are putting down the hatch. I am 77 this month and have greatly changed little by little what I eat the last 50 years, and rarely have any indigestion, but in the past was doubled over in pain, or full of gas bubbles for hours.
All these comments are helpful and glad to see options. i have both AF and SVT. or perhaps AF initially miss and was SVT. i can feel the increased rate and irregularity in my radial pulse- so always thought AF. but Xio 2 week monitor shows 12 episodes of SVT 243-129/ min atrial rate. so i’m searching for best SVT tx and if Watchman treats both?
All these comments are helpful and glad to see options. i have both AF and SVT. or perhaps AF initially miss and was SVT. i can feel the increased rate and irregularity in my radial pulse- so always thought AF. but Xio 2 week monitor shows 12 episodes of SVT 243-129/ min atrial rate. so i’m searching for best SVT tx and if Watchman treats both?
SVT is a tachyarrhythmia, meaning it is too fast, but it isn't quite as risky for strokes due to clot formation in the left atrial appendage as is the case with atrial fibrillation (AF). That said, it's still an arrhythmia, so a Watchman could be installed, depending on the patient's particulars.
AF, on the other hand, is not necessarily a tachyarrhythmia. You can have AF with numerous records of HR less than 100 BPM....the limit below which a fast heart rate is not considered to be tachycardia. The problem with AF, and what makes it especially dangerous, is that the left atrium beats irregularly, chaotically, but also irregularly irregularly...if that makes sense. It is this 'irregularly irregular' rhythm, or arrhythmia, that makes pooled blood in the left atrial appendage a problem.
The Watchman does not 'treat' the arrhythmia as your wording in your last question above seems to suggest you believe might be possible. The Watchman does nothing for the heart. It takes up the internal volume of the LAA, and if it seals off with endothelial cells inside of five or six months, and if it doesn't leak (confirmed by a trans-esophageal echocardiogram, or TEE), then it will prevent any further risk of strokes since the LAA accounts for an estimated 90% of the risk of stroke when the heart is in AF.
So, yes, some patients with SVT may be offered a Watchman, but it is much more likely that an AF patient will be asked if he/she would like to try it to see if it will seal off their LAA correctly and so that they may possibly be able to stop taking an anti-coagulant.
All these comments are helpful and glad to see options. i have both AF and SVT. or perhaps AF initially miss and was SVT. i can feel the increased rate and irregularity in my radial pulse- so always thought AF. but Xio 2 week monitor shows 12 episodes of SVT 243-129/ min atrial rate. so i’m searching for best SVT tx and if Watchman treats both?
I’m allergic to Eliquis. Found that out the hard way. After less than a day I had phlegm so thick I couldn’t breathe and severe gastro gas and bloating. Then Afib a few hours later. I stayed on the Eliquis a little over a week because the cardiologist said it’s not the Eliquis. Then I got confused and dementia like. The few hours a day I was alert it decided to stop the Eliquis on my own and find a new cardiologist. Sadly the only blood thinner I’m not allergic to to to warfarin. Even then I take only a tiny amount before my system goes wacky.
FYI most of the bad reactions from the Eliquis faded after a month except the gastro issues. If I get a gas bubble i get Afib so my food choices are very limited. Acupuncture for my anxiety (I never had before) and to help with the heart. This has helped a lot.
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@terrigfield You mention a situation that I have yet to see mentioned in these groups. The process of reversal of Eliqus in an emergency situation. From what I've seen Eliqus is still working 24 hrs after the last dose. What little I have been able to read about the reversal agents available it doesn't sound that readily available and also not that fast acting like the one available for Coumadin. I've gotten to keeping a Quick Clotting kit in my car in hope that I would be able to use it if necessary.
So as good as it is in preventing clots there is another side to it like anything else in life.
Hardly as knowledgeable as gloaming, as a layman I wondered for what condition were you taking Eliquis, a blood thinner? Is it wise to have been on it at all preceding a “cutting” procedure? And the rule is that only the Eliquis prescriber should say when to stop it. Who was that? I took E. for a full course due to a leg clot. Yes it sucks but the clot disappeared completely in weeks. Might your healed H. have developed a hemorrhage that burst on straining? (Cleveland Clinic). Our 34 YO daughter has AFiB and is recommended and is considering the new Maze procedure. Please get better. We’ll pray for that.
@terrigfield If you can stand the learning from a non-medical person, but one who has done a lot of research on AF and its wide variants of care, a two-year stint truly (this word is important....truly) free of AF should put you in the clear. But that word 'truly' gets in the way. And so does any other comorbidity lurking, maybe undiscovered in you, that puts you at risk for thromboembolic stoke. So, if you know 'you're good', and you are certain you have no short runs of AF of an hour or more (the literature says 48 hrs, but I cannot buy that....a run of an hour is going to be a solid hour of poor circulation in the LAA!), then you almost certainly should be safe to stop taking a DOAC like Eliquis.
I must ethically add, once again, I'm NOT a doctor or a specialist nurse. But looking at it logically, Dr. Natale will agree to let you stop taking apixaban if a six-month post-ablation-with-Watchman has a TEE (trans-esophageal echocardiogram) showing no leakage from the LAA (left atrial appendage). He would ask you to take a baby aspirin once a day, however. So, if the vaunted Dr. Natale says you're clear after no AF and a TEE says you're LAA is not leaking, you can safely stop the apixaban.
Now the logic requires some refinement. About any lurking comorbidities, or if you have no Watchman, or if you're asymptomatic and don't really know when/if you've had a run of AF, it might be a little too risky for you to stop on your own. In your case, with the little I know of you, you're taking a chance. Strike off all the caveats and I think you should be in clear. If even one of those criteria is left with an unchecked box beside it, you have a running risk of a stroke.
@windyshores I have the dilemma of wether or not to continue Eliquis. After a routine hemerroidectomy I restarted my Eliquis and 4 days later had severe recital bleeding, requiring a 4 day ICU stay and 3 blood transfusions. No doctereill tell me when to start the Eliquis again I have not been in AFib for 2 years and am trying to figure out what to do! Watchman has been suggested. As for now I will stay off another week til I try to be my own doctor and figure it out!!
I am on Xarelto. No side effects.
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1 ReactionPat, In the past, I had afib severe. Then last year started up again. It was caffeine and only takes less than one half cup coffee from the US. But never took Eliquis, and never will. I have learned to never take meds without investigating the side effects first and end up taking none. I search for the root cause, and do what I can to eliminate that. And if you have GI upset or indigestion, examine what and what combinations you are putting down the hatch. I am 77 this month and have greatly changed little by little what I eat the last 50 years, and rarely have any indigestion, but in the past was doubled over in pain, or full of gas bubbles for hours.
Same here! Hang in there!
SVT is a tachyarrhythmia, meaning it is too fast, but it isn't quite as risky for strokes due to clot formation in the left atrial appendage as is the case with atrial fibrillation (AF). That said, it's still an arrhythmia, so a Watchman could be installed, depending on the patient's particulars.
AF, on the other hand, is not necessarily a tachyarrhythmia. You can have AF with numerous records of HR less than 100 BPM....the limit below which a fast heart rate is not considered to be tachycardia. The problem with AF, and what makes it especially dangerous, is that the left atrium beats irregularly, chaotically, but also irregularly irregularly...if that makes sense. It is this 'irregularly irregular' rhythm, or arrhythmia, that makes pooled blood in the left atrial appendage a problem.
The Watchman does not 'treat' the arrhythmia as your wording in your last question above seems to suggest you believe might be possible. The Watchman does nothing for the heart. It takes up the internal volume of the LAA, and if it seals off with endothelial cells inside of five or six months, and if it doesn't leak (confirmed by a trans-esophageal echocardiogram, or TEE), then it will prevent any further risk of strokes since the LAA accounts for an estimated 90% of the risk of stroke when the heart is in AF.
So, yes, some patients with SVT may be offered a Watchman, but it is much more likely that an AF patient will be asked if he/she would like to try it to see if it will seal off their LAA correctly and so that they may possibly be able to stop taking an anti-coagulant.
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2 ReactionsAll these comments are helpful and glad to see options. i have both AF and SVT. or perhaps AF initially miss and was SVT. i can feel the increased rate and irregularity in my radial pulse- so always thought AF. but Xio 2 week monitor shows 12 episodes of SVT 243-129/ min atrial rate. so i’m searching for best SVT tx and if Watchman treats both?
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2 Reactionsi find GI upset like indigestion and bloating triggers arrhythmias-
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