Ping to all of you.
Something better than rat poison . . . whouda thunk???
Eliquis....................
My buddy was on Xarelto and it worked very well. Then his insurance decided it didn’t want to pay for that anymore and forced him onto Coumadin.
Skin issues, light sensitivity, overall malaise. He even needed to see a dermatologist.
He’s still trying to get back on Xarelto. A-hole insurance...
Thanks for posting my husband just had a stroke about a month ago. Only clue was ability to speak got him to my cardiologist and MRI showed a stroke had occurred
Dr could not find significant risk factors artery clogs or irregular heart beat nor high BP. Put him on 325 aspirin looked at Cholesterol ( only 140) and said let’s shoot for zero cholesterol.
Put him on 40mg Crestor
We will get full results of heart monitoring in a week.
I put him on a glass of red wine daily. Glad better drugs coming forward.
The actual money quote:
“Sheikh notes that the newer drugs are expensive...”
Maintenance costs are lower (fewer office visits, no need for regular tab tests (INRs) and fewer risks which lead to better outcomes.
In Canada, new, higher cost anticoagulant drugs like Apixaban have to be paid for out of pocket because the state will only pay for the very cheap Warfarin which carries a much higher overhead.
“Coumadin requires careful monitoring”
Yes, you really should monitor your rat poison levels. Don’t want to lose control of that.
“Eliquis”
States on the bottle and their web site, “Not for people with artificial heart valves.”
The list price for a 30-day supply of ELIQUIS is $471
The average retail price of a 30-day supply COUMADIN is $12.53
Factor in cost of intermittent Protime/INR blood tests and Dr. visits
4 years ago, I was diagnosed with A/Fib, was not put on any of these drugs.
Then, we joined the big West Coast HMO, and they did a lot of tests, and I was put on apixaban (Eliquis), also a factor Xa inhibitor.
I take the drug twice a day. There are no dietary restrictions nor lab tests.
In January of last year, I had a stent installed and was kept on Eliquis, plus one baby aspirin a day and another blood thinner for a year post stent. If someone looked at me, I bruised. Then, the other blood thinner was stopped, and my bruisin basically stop.
We are on the Med. diet with a lot of green stuff and no problem.
I have been on apixaban (Eliquis) basically 3 years and no problems.
If you don’t have drug insurance beware. Spouse had to say no to Eliquis at nearly $600 per 30 days, twice a day pill.
I had a couple arterial stents plugged in 2 months ago and they put me on Plavix which gave me brain fog and vivid nightmares. It is also contraindicated for use with Esomeprazole which I have been taking for 20 years for acid reflux - so, back to aspirin for now.
90 day supply = $0
Blood test every 6 weeks = $0
Additionally, there are dietary restrictions associated with warfarin that aren’t necessary with the new anticoagulants. Warfarin works against vitamin K, which the liver uses to make blood-clotting proteins, reducing the liver’s ability to use vitamin K to produce these proteins. So if a patient on warfarin eats too many foods with high levels of vitamin K, such as leafy greens or liver, it can affect warfarin’s metabolism. “It could either get very high or very low and increase the risk of bleeding or stroke,” Sheikh says. “But with these new drugs you don’t have to worry about these types of food interactions. People can eat what they want.”
...
An advantage of this relationship is that vitamin K is an effective and cheap antidote for Coumadin overdoses.
Does Plavix have the same food interactions as Warfarin?
Anyone have any experience or information on that Watchman device that gets implanted?