Apixapan

[SaltyUK]

I have received a letter today from my Haemotology Consultant regarding various issues. He has stated that I should stop my Tinzaparin blood thinner and switch to either Rivaroxaban 20mg daily or Apixaban 5mg twice daily.

I have seen in a past post here that Rivaroxaban was listed as one of the blood thinners that does not make RLS symptoms worse but does anyone know if this is the case for Apixapan also?

From what I have read on the internet Apixapan is considered safer. "Safety is defined as less gastrointestinal bleeding and intracranial hemorrhage. Effectiveness is defined as prevention of thromboembolic stroke, or systemic embolism". The fact that there is no reliable antidote for either is however quite concerning.

I think therefore that given my history of Portal Vein Thrombosis and ongoing issues with the likely hood of gastrointestinal bleeding that perhaps Apixaban would be the better option for me.

Meanwhile,since my last post I have been taking an iorn supplement once a day and have slowly increased my gabapentin. I now take 600mg Gabapentin at 9pm and a further 100mg at 11pm with my iorn supplement and some orange juice. this seems to be working and my RLS syptoms have improved quite a lot and I have have had no side effects so far. I now get up to 6hrs sleep a night as opposed to zero to 3hrs which was proving difficult to deal with not particuarly due to the lack of sleep but mainly due to the uncomfortable sensations in my arms and legs throughout the night.

Any advice regarding the Apixaban would be gratefully received.

[SueJohnson]

I haven't been able to find anything about Apixaban but you might want to check out healthunlocked.com/rlsuk/po...

However you are taking your gabapentin opposite to the way you should take it. Take the 100 mg at 9 and the 600 at 11 assuming you go to bed at 12 - 1, as you want the larger dose closer to your bedtime.

[SaltyUK in reply to SueJohnson]

Thanks very much for your reply Sue,

I’ll change the order in which I take my Gabapentin.

I hope to get an appointment with my GP ( it could be any one of several GP’s at the practice and they seem to have different levels of knowledge and different opinions regarding RLS) tomorrow and will see what she/he thinks but I think that perhaps now my preference will be Rivaroxapan as it’s known not to increase RLS symptoms.

[Jelbea in reply to SaltyUK]

Hi SaltyUK - I have been taking rivaroxaban for three years and it did not increase my RLS which was already extremely bad. I had had a deep vein thrombosis and three small pulmonary emboli. These were related to a rare blood cancer which was then diagnosed so I am on rivaroxaban permanently. I have had no trouble with rivaroxaban. At the start I was on apixaban for a short time but this seemed to worsen anxiety and cause depression so it was changed to rivaroxaban. I also have to take aspirin 75 mg on alternate days to keep platelets from sticking together. This is an added risk for a bleed but I have to take it because if I do not I get severe migraine with speech difficulty. I understand there is now a drug which can reverse the blood thinning if need be. I hope you get this sorted ASAP and I send good wishes

[SaltyUK in reply to Jelbea]

Thank you for your reply Jelbea. It would appear that we have had similar experiences. I had a Portal vein thrombosis in 2019 the cause of which was traced back to a rare blood mutation/cancer. Since then I have been on blood thinners and will be for life. Initially I was prescribed Warfarin and then Tinzaparin as I have 3 monthly endoscopy’s. I think that I’ll be asking the GP for Rivaroxaban. The Consultant did say that there is no reliable antidote for it which is a little concerning but I have read that there is one so I’ll need to investigate that further. I haven’t been told that I need to take aspirin as well which is good.

Thanks for the good wishes and the same to you.