After being on bispoprolol for 18 months after pacemaker fitted, hospital forgot all about me and I had to request a follow up due to numerous side effects. Long story short they took me off bisoprolol, said I didn't need it any more even though I still have atrial fibrillation, albeit very slight. Due to this and my age now 65 have been put on rivaroxaban 20mg once a day.
Feeling very vulnerable and worried as my gp said there is no antidote unlike warfarin.
Staying well away from sharp knives and razors!
Any reassurances people. Thanks
Wishing you all a very happy healthy Christmas and New Year.
Written by
wpw62
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Most people prefer rivoroxaban as you don't need blood testing, but I expect you could revert to warfarin if you really wanted to, but presumably they had a reason to change.
As far as the risk of bleeding is concerned you can do an hasbled score to assess.
It's rarely a problem and only if you have a major bleed (bowel, brain or major blood vessel)
Warfarin's antidote works its miracles rather slowly but some people seem to feel that because there's a reversal agent it makes one much safer.
I understand your reservations. I felt very unsafe when I first took an anticoagulant (warfarin) and struggled to keep on an even keel. The thing is, nothing went wrong, I never needed the antidote. I don't think many people do. The sudden and dire end I could see right ahead never materialised. Little cuts were little cuts and you don't get thin blood that gushes uncontrollably. Complacency replaces the fear and when I moved to rivaroxaban 18 months ago, it was magic. I have a sense of security that I never had with warfarin with its INR capable of wandering all over the place. As long as I take my pills, I have a measure of protection from stroke that's constant and so what if there's no extremely slow antidote? There are other ways of treating a serious bleed.
Thanks Rellim296. Good to know you have had such good results on both warfarin and rivaroxaban. One more question is it all right to drink alcohol with rivaroxaban. Not to excess but I do like a sociable Christmas drink or two.
Most people seem worried about lack of antidote but this really is a red herring. In the event of a serious bleed special transfusions are available. Even with warfarin the much claimed vit K thing isn't very quick although there is a drug which can revert INR. Unfortunately the chances of this being available other than at a large hospital is minimal.
For most predictable bleeds normal methods such as maintaining pressure and elevating the limb have been shown to be satisfactory.
In 15 years of taking warfarin I have never once had any problems and work with metal and sharp objects (like my wife's tongue) all the time.
Why do they do this???? If one really is unfortunate to be in a car accident I think bleeding is not the biggest risks anyway. Most cars cosset the driver away from sharp edges and blunt trauma is a more likely result. Anyway think positive and drive carefully.
I do confess to being a little over careful with my chain saw mind you.
Hi there I was the same when first on apixoban but my GP helped when he told me about his experience training in Germany. He was a jnr Dr at one of the largest A&E departments in Europe and in 3 years only saw the warfirin reversal used once. At all other times anticoagulated people had their bleeding controlled by same means as non-anticoag ie with pressure etc. Maybe took a bit longer but essentially no different in terms of method. That helped me a lot. Be well.
I got a medical bracelet on Amazon for less that $10 that says medical alert and Eliquis. I shower with it and everything. I think it's made out of silicone. I figure if I'm unconscious it will alert that special precautions need to be taken. They have them for all kinds of medicines.
I had the same fears. My cardiologist was pretty unhelpful, it wasn't until I went to my dentist that she put it all in perspective. You can even have a tooth extraction of the lower jaw without much of a problem but the upper jaw , they need to be a bit concerned because you cant keep the pressure on it easily for extended time. As I understand it the clotting just takes twice as long as normal. (Hope that's right)
I had visions of my blood never clotting at all !! :((
Personally I get people taking theses drugs--but they sound horrible--oh i kno --a stroke is far worse--but at this point--Im on the fence----"Dont yell at me" MmeT
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