My EP took me off eliquis. But I’m petrified. I’ll have a stroke now.

@ndye35 His thinking may be that you would surmise that he is minimizing your risk if you get a Watchman, but still have the CHA2DS2-VASc score of 3, which means that you do have a not-inconsiderable risk for a thromboembolic event due to a risk of clot formation....for some reason...somewhere in your body. IOW, you might think the Watchman makes you home free when in fact further AF will encourage more heart remodeling and other problems which increases your whole-body risk of stroke anyway. So, perhaps his thinking is that you would be further ahead taking the DOAC, but having a 24/7 monitor running to warn you when/if you enter any kind of arrhythmia that could restart you on a descending path toward poorer health, but mostly because you don't know it's happening. Since many are asymptomatic, it behooves some of us to have constant monitoring to stay out of arrhythmia as much as possible, Watchman, DOAC, or not.

Ablation in 2/20 at age 73, and kept on 5 mg Eloquis until new EP, 6/23, using new guidelines that Gloaming referenced took me off Eloquis. In the summer of 23. My cardiologist asked me to monitor my HR and try to keep it below 120, which I do. I was concerned about Eloquis side effects and was ok being taken off. In 8/23 I received a two lead pacemaker for sick sinus node. I use ChatGPT now to ask all sorts of questions. My treatment is at Vanderbilt which has an excellent patient portal which allows me to ask questions and receive excellent answers within 2 days.

I had Atrial Fibrillation about 3% of the time for 4 years . Then I was put on Eliquis as my Cardiologist said I could have a stroke or heart attack . Since I started taking Eliquis my Atrial fibrillation has increased to 30% . Has anyone experienced this happening to them?

@lwools A great many should reply yes. The reason is that, even without the apixaban, the disorder is progressive. It tends to get worse over time for the great majority of patients. Sometimes it goes really bad inside of a few months and the heart suffers, and for others it takes years to develop into something that requires an intervention. You are a prime example of someone who took a drug and then found that his treated disorder was rapidly changing, and not for the better. This is just coincidence.

@gloaming thanks, I will continue to take it for fear of stroke. Would really like to find a fix.

@lwools wait a minute are you saying that you won’t stop taking it because you might have a stroke? I do realize there’s other risk factors as well. You could bleed out. The fear mongering on here is horrible. I gotta get off this board.

@kmj126 What you call fear mongering we prefer to call 'ethical informing' to make sure people get information that MAY be something not shared, or was poorly understood, or was poorly communicated, by busy physicians to patients who've just received a shocking diagnosis. Having assessed, counseled, and reported on many thousands of clients over twenty-plus years who related that they had been fooled, lied to, ridiculed, or dismissed, when consulting other professionals, I take it as a personal responsibility to try to assuage their fears, fill in the blanks, help them to reason their way through contradictory information, or what seems to be but really isn't, and to learn what the possible outcomes might be if they choose Door #1 and decline Door #2. IOW, we offer a service, fellowship, commiseration, information, and guidance when asked. Nobody comes here for fear mongering.

@gloaming I’m sorry I’m frustrated. My EP said I didn’t need the thinner but I keep hearing I’ll have a stroke if I’m not on it.

@lwools this is an issue I’ve studied a lot as my EP directed me to 81 mg aspirin after ablation. It sorta makes sense why take anticoagulant if I’m not experiencing AFIB. If I’m constantly in AFIB then elliquis makes sense but why take anticoagulant expensive pill that increases my chances of a bleeding episode if AFIB isn’t happening. It seems that cardiology community would put all patients on anticoagulants regardless of situation.

@chickenfarmer I understand your position. Here is what I know, or 'think' I know 😀 :

When the left atrium is fibrillating, the circulation of blood is reduced. It can't fill properly by the time the next untimed contraction takes place. One serious outcome of this is that the 'left atrial appendage', a small pouch at upper extreme left of the left atrium, doesn't get flushed out properly with a fresh supply of blood. After a while, still in AF, whether a few minutes or several hours, the pooled and stale blood has begun to clot. Then, by bad luck, or when the heart reverts to normal sinus rhythm, which happens to you almost every time, the new vigorous refilling of the left atrium might cause one or more clots to get washed out of the LAA, and it goes out of the heart on the next ventricular contraction. Where it goes means life, life in a wheelchair or on your back, or death. It can travel to the heart, itself, and cause a heart attack because it blocks the left anterior descending artery. Or it can travel to the brain and give you a nasty stroke. Or, maybe to the lungs. Or to a kidney.

The risk of a stroke from AF rises five times ( X 5) over a normal person's risk at the same age and with a good heart. The risk of a major bleed is somewhat less. When was the last time you had a catastrophic bleed, say from a terrible fall that broke bones and had a sharp bone pierce an artery? Or in a car accident where a limb was almost completely severed? Those events are rare. and even when they do happen, someone nearby will call for help and attempt to stanch the worst of the blood loss. Minor cuts and abrasions don't even figure here. It's just the serious bleeds, and for all of us, it's very remote. But.................you do NOT want a stroke.

Last part of this...sorry, it gets long....and that is that the EP community have established that you can die from an AF related stroke months after a successful ablation or after reverting to normal sinus rhythm and not having any more AF over that long period. It is for this reason that the Watchman device was engineered and is offered to many patients. It seals off the mouth of the LAA and doesn't let any clots issue from it, ever. At that point, with a confirmatory trans-esophageal echocardiogram (TEE), your cardiologist and EP will agree, usually, to let you stop taking Eliquis/Rivaroxaban, maybe with a baby aspirin each day instead. But this depends on your overall risk. You may have other things going on that also raise your risk of a stroke....not just the history of AF.

I hope this very long explanation helps you to situate yourself in this unfortunate condition.