Atrial fibrilation

[Jancam1]

Atrial fibrillation. Was on a eliquis but had two bleeds. First one gastro second one cranial. Took off blood thinners. Neuro doc says No more. Says stroke is bad but so is a cranial bleed. Whatnow. Can they do ablation if not on blood thinner?

[rosyG]

it might be worth looking into an occlusion of the atrial appendage. It's not always successful but can block off the area where most of the blood clots form- see what you think- always some risk with any procedure- am not medically trained!!

[Hidden]

As RosyG says, we are not medically trained therefore it is unlikely that anyone on the forum is able to answer your question which is I know will not be much help for you. We know that there have been many waiting for an ablation who have unfortunately missed a dose of their anticoagulant and as a consequence, there procedures are cancelled. I really think you need to seek professional advice from an EP...….

[jedimasterlincoln]

I was told i didn't need to be anticoagulated unless they went into the left side. But ever EP and patient is different, you need to seek advice from him/her and/or the arrhythmia nurses at your hospital

[MarkS]

As RosyG says, you could be a candidate for left atrial occlusion. It sounds as though the anti-coagulant is having too great an effect. The level of anti-coagulation can't be measured with eliquis, so an alternative might be to take warfarin and religiously self monitor your INR using a device such as Coaguchek. But this is a specialist area and you might need advice from a haematologist who deals with bleeding/clotting disorders.

[Ianc2]

Cranberry juice is a natural anticoagulant but I can't find any studies regarding how to measure it's effects

[wilsond]

There is a member here who has had a Watchman proceedure,which is available for those who cant take anti coagulants,it might be worth asking about this?

Best wishes

[avrambaer]

Your experience is similar to mine. In my case, I was taking warfarin and it caused a clot in my eye to leak. I was blind for about three months and then I submitted to a victrectomy to clean out the junk. Vision restored but the procedure usually leads to formation of a cataract. There are valid uses for anti-coagulants, but they are being prescribed indiscriminately to the point that it has become a knee jerk reaction, aFib=anticoagulant at all times,

[Jancam1 in reply to avrambaer]

Did you continue with a blood thinner after that incident?

[avrambaer]

No. As a matter of fact, anticoagulant therapy is contraindicated in my situation. As a result of eye trauma, I have a condition called central serous retinopathy which causes a small pool of blood behind my retina. Anticoagulants can cause it to leak into the body of the eye. My overall CHAD score is 2, so my chance of stroke is not statistically significant. My internist reflexively prescribed a blood thinner when I was diagnosed with atrial flutter. Within two weeks I became symptomatic with a grinding heart burn and intestinal bleeding and to top it off, blindness in my right eye. The therapy left me with a pancreatitis (fortunately it resolved itself) and a very embarrassed internist. I subsequently made an appointment with a cardiological group at a well known teaching hospital. Their reaction was classically candid. They did not urge me to restart anticoagulant therapy, but advised me that if I did restart, they preferred apixaban. I had been on warfarin which is a pain in the butt to regulate. I'll go with the statistics. At less than 5% chance of stroke, atrial flutter is another factor but not the controlling factor to consider resuming therapy. As I've said I became symptomatic in just two weeks. There are also no tests to indicate before taking an anticoagulant that there may be allergic reactions. It's a case of trial and error. That's not good enough for me to "roll the dice". My internist no longer urges me to start that therapy. I may be an outlier but nevertheless I am factual. There are too many reports of unwanted and dangerous bleeds in patients for physicians not to be selective in prescribing anticoagulants. Sorry if I've been long winded. lol