After struggling with anticoagulants I am now trying Dabigatran/Pradaxa.After a month on a low dose my weight has increased ...nothing else has altered...I am eating less bread. ..in fact less overall. I eat little meat and don't drink alcohol. I do not want thus weight gain to continue.
Have other people had this side effect?
Previously Edoxaban and Riveroxaban both reduced my mobility to a frightening degree . That hasn't happened.. yet ...with Pradaxa. J.
J
Hi
I've been on 150mg x twice for 2 years. Stayed same weight. Then I found I should have been taking 110mg x twice for almost 3 years.
I've lost 6kg.
Reduced Diltiazem a CCB 120mg AM and 2.5mg Bisoprolol PM.
I eat Sour Dough and have A2 milk.
cheri JOY. 75. (NZ)
Thanks for your reply Joy... love your persona!
Hi
I wonder I was the only person who replied. Are we the only AFers taking PRADAXA!
I chose it because it has an antidote.
and
Twice a day so I could be low on it when I have a fall, accident etc, before I have another PRADAXA to bring it up to optimum.
I hope PRADAXA sorts you out.
Also it is foil wrapped. A friend had a little dog eat a En......
she was so worried. The dog some Vit K. It was OK. I think it may have spat it out without her looking. Apparently charcoal tabs are the best. They absorb contents in your stomach.
cheri JOY.
Morning g...here...Joy,
I have a friend on it without problems...don't know why it was prescribed for her.
My reason was as I said bad reaction to the newer DOACs..two different ones. I react badly to medication..I have asthma now following Covid Vaccines...hence my reluctance to take anticoagulants again.
I got so tired of being harangued by the medics for not taking anticoagulants that I am trying to comply. I lost years of more active life as a result of the Edoxban and Riveroxaban. I am frightened of that reoccurring as I am ten years older and less agile now.
I have few symptoms of my minor AF which affect me...I have a mitral valve leak which hasn't worsened.
I often wish it had never been found....as a result of a simple blood pressure check. I take no other medication.
Best wishes J
Hi. I take apixaban. I was told it was the kindest anticoagulant to the brain and stomach as I had had brain tumour surgery. When I fell (crashed) my head and rest of body really badly on the paving stones I got a subarachnoid brain haemorrhage and was given a drug through a cannula to stop the effects of the apixaban. Could call it a reversal drug I suppose. The bleed was due to the fall not the apixaban
All the best…..Pat x
Hi
I read that too later.
But in NZ we are offered all of them and Apixaban is not offered.
I'm not sure the significance between Asthma and Asthma. I know where is for BBs and Asthma.
We need to look at when we take it, the strength as I was finally told by a nurse that a CCB Calcium Channel Blocker should be taken at a different time than BB. So I take CCB Diltiazem morning AM and low dose Bisoprolol PM.
That 120mg CCB is enough and not the report which suggests I could take up to 360mg (full dose).
When I had a bang at the back of head when on Pradaxa nothing happened. My arm went black and my coccyx got some frozen peas.
Its all a bit of a mine field.
But I'm being sent down to Auckland Hospital for a third scan, ultra sound of my neck, CT scan with dye and now RA Scan as it points to an area within the lymph node central which could have missed removal. This is my 4th year cancer check.
Oh dear, scarey.
I'm off for the weekend in my van with my little mini schnauzer to take my mind off things.
Medical choices are all a risk of a kind.
Surgeon has marked this scan URGENT Papillary cancer returned?
cheri JOY
Oh I do hope that your cancer hasn't returned and all the tests will come back negative. Enjoy the weekend and get well please
Best wishes..........Pat x
I testing too read of your DOAC experiences. Rivaroxaban was the cause of my having Polymyalgia Rheumatica for nearly 4 years. I was only taking it for 12 days, but almost immediately it gave me intense pains throughout my body. I went back to Warfarin and bought my own INR meter. Generally I keep within range by eating the same foods regularly, including green vegetables. However I had one week recently when I was off food, which played havoc with my INR. My monthly check showed it high, so was advised to miss my dose for 2 nights.
The alternative for me is a DOAC, but having had a terrible experience of one, I'm wary of all of the DOACs. I will stay with Warfarin.
Thomas I am so pleased to hear of someone else having an experience with similarites to mine. If the Dabigatran does not work out, I shall ask to go on the tried and tested Warfarin. Quite happy to self test...I keep a check on my blood pressure...which tends rise when I have to have discussions with medics about taking anticoagulants. !!
The Dabigatran was prescribed by a Cardiologist...a year ago! Even then I resisted, and by starting them now , following a valve test (which was unchanged ) I am trying to appease these people who I know only have my best interests at heart...if you excuse the analogy.
So far so good...one month in, low dose, tall person gaining weight only since taking these....let's see!
Very best wishes to you, J
That is interesting. I take Apixaban and I get bad back and pain in my hips ( but its not the joint as I have had both replaced) . On lowering the dose as an experiment the pain improves so I know it's the Apixaban that is causing it. What symptoms did you get with the Polymyalgia?
Within hours of taking Rivaroxaban I had pains throughout my body, except my head. Within 30 minutes of getting up my legs stiffened. Moving around was painful. It took lots of blood tests before I had the one that showed Polymyalgia Rheumatica, and erythrocyte sedimentation rate test, which measured how far red blood cells settle to the bottle of a test tube in one hour. It indicates the level of inflammation in the body. A normal reading for a man of my age was around 25. The test showed mine to be 130, deemed to be very high.The only treatment, at that time, and may still be, was a.very slowly reducing dose of prednisolone, starting at about 30mg a day. My GPs were very good, prescribing large quantities of prednisolone, and allowed me to reduce at my own pace, knowing that I know my body better than they did. I joined the health unlocked PMR forum. If I took too little the pains returned. It took just under 4 years to reduce to zero. After two years I had a Dexascan which showed I had osteopeonia, for which I was prescribed bisphosphonates which caused excruciating knee pain, and I was taken off then. I was prescribed, and still take vitamin C and D3 tablets.
My GPs considered that Rivaroxaban caused my body to react with Polymyalgia Rheumatica.
Thank you. That was a very fast reaction. My ESR has always been above normal whenever it has been tested.
I have no problem with pradaxa , on it since 2017
Thank you Hanagot, that's encouraging.
On Pradaxa since 2021, I'm 62 and have chronic pulmonary embolism and the odd Afib episode a few times a year. Had no problems so far on Pradaxa. Banged my head quite bad a couple times trying to get into my grandson's playhouse but nothing apart from the normal bruising. We now have our tea parties on the lawn 
Carbohydrate connection to AF
Weight change with AF
af and endrocrinologist
Bit if a strange one 🥴 bloating, racing heart, burping. 
NHS SPS - Specialist Pharmacy Service - has published two papers about DOACs
