Bottom line, if you are prepared to accept the personal risk and responsibility for the clot, and a subsequent stroke, go for it. Some EPs will agree that you can go off NOACs once your CHADs2 score drops to a mere 1 or less, especially if you have a Watchman implanted and the area is deemed to be closed to blood accumulation.
Some won't. The variance may be attributable to the numbers of subsequent strokes that the various EPs report in their 'cured' patients. In turn, that might be due to the skills, or even to the grade of difficulty of the patients' conditions, of the EP agreeing to treat a set of people.
In my time reading on various fora, the two principle fears or objections are over the cost and the risk of hemorrhage. There's little to argue about the former, but the latter is entirely moot and there is no evidence the NOACs cause bleed-out. They do retard clotting, but they don't prevent it. I have had several bloody scrapes and never had uncontrollable bleeding. If I leave it alone, next I look it has clotted.
Across people and their circumstances, your chances of a stroke, once you have a history of arrythmia and of general age-related disorders and syndromes, is at least twice what the risk would be of a serious bleed. But were you to poll those who have lived past a serious stroke, I'm pretty sure they'd encourage you to take the prescription. Those who have died....are unpollable.
Starting in 2015 I have had afib with very rapid heart rate, once a year, or even had a two year interval. This past year I had one episode in late August 2023, two in early October, and I just had one two nights ago, 4/16, with heart rate peaking around 200.
I am meeting with a new cardiologist at a teaching hospital and am going to ask about the "pill in a pocket" approach meaning short term anticoagulation. Some say a month, some say less time. And there is a lot of difference of opinion on how long it takes to form a clot.
When one of my episodes lasted 7 hours (usually they are 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours) the hospital did an echocardiogram to check for clots.
A cardiologist pressured me to take a blood thinner back in 2015 and I declined. He later told he he agreed (much later) and that they were "probably" overmedicating people. Then again, my mother had continuous afib and had a stroke when off Coumadin for 5 days.
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Bottom line, if you are prepared to accept the personal risk and responsibility for the clot, and a subsequent stroke, go for it. Some EPs will agree that you can go off NOACs once your CHADs2 score drops to a mere 1 or less, especially if you have a Watchman implanted and the area is deemed to be closed to blood accumulation.
Some won't. The variance may be attributable to the numbers of subsequent strokes that the various EPs report in their 'cured' patients. In turn, that might be due to the skills, or even to the grade of difficulty of the patients' conditions, of the EP agreeing to treat a set of people.
In my time reading on various fora, the two principle fears or objections are over the cost and the risk of hemorrhage. There's little to argue about the former, but the latter is entirely moot and there is no evidence the NOACs cause bleed-out. They do retard clotting, but they don't prevent it. I have had several bloody scrapes and never had uncontrollable bleeding. If I leave it alone, next I look it has clotted.
Across people and their circumstances, your chances of a stroke, once you have a history of arrythmia and of general age-related disorders and syndromes, is at least twice what the risk would be of a serious bleed. But were you to poll those who have lived past a serious stroke, I'm pretty sure they'd encourage you to take the prescription. Those who have died....are unpollable.
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8 ReactionsI don't take any blood thinners at all.
Starting in 2015 I have had afib with very rapid heart rate, once a year, or even had a two year interval. This past year I had one episode in late August 2023, two in early October, and I just had one two nights ago, 4/16, with heart rate peaking around 200.
I am meeting with a new cardiologist at a teaching hospital and am going to ask about the "pill in a pocket" approach meaning short term anticoagulation. Some say a month, some say less time. And there is a lot of difference of opinion on how long it takes to form a clot.
When one of my episodes lasted 7 hours (usually they are 45 minutes to 2 1/2 hours) the hospital did an echocardiogram to check for clots.
A cardiologist pressured me to take a blood thinner back in 2015 and I declined. He later told he he agreed (much later) and that they were "probably" overmedicating people. Then again, my mother had continuous afib and had a stroke when off Coumadin for 5 days.
How often do you have afib?
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