Riding while on Blood Thinners?

[SemperVee]

Just released from hospital for PE and placed twice daily on blood thinners.   Anyone here of our mature Gentlemanly  audience still riding while on blood thinners?
I'm on Eliquis for my 2nd PE and thinking I may have to stay on meds remainder of my life.

Easy to say no one gets out alive anyway - But contemplaitng doing without what I have been doing daily riding for 48 years now with only one accident all that time.  How have you handled it?  Rode less or gave it up?     I also ride a Bicycle but less fear of that.

Signed Pondering what to do with Risk Managment about this.

[blackcat]

I was on a blood thinner for a year after getting a stent, and I didn't do anything different than what I normally do and fortunately I'm no longer on the thinner. The biggest pain was getting large black and blue marks from simple minor accidents, and of course any minor bleeding turned into a gusher.  I always ride with some protection, so it wasn't like I had to take any extra precautions.

[Perazzimx14]

Not to alarm you but Eliquis is what lead to my fathers death. He had a GI bleed and unlike other blood thinner that can be reversed with a shot of vitamin K Eliquis needs to run it course and it takes 36 to 48 hours for the effects to wear off. So the bleed simply kept bleeding. It became a waiting game of would the medication wear off and the bleed slow allowing him to gain strength enough for surgery or would he bleed to death.

Again this is not to alarm you just warn you of a potential downside of the medication.

[cliffrod]

Similar experience here with my wife.s aunt.  She was on Eliquis, slipped and fell at supermarket parking lot between cars and hit her head against the car on the way down.  They didn't think it was a "bad" fall, so went home.  She was dead by morning from an aneurism the dr said was caused by the fall & subsequent bleeding.    We watched my uncle norm (just died) like a hawk for the past few years so his Eliquis + his occasional falls wouldn't end in the same result.  No matter, his minor bruises were epic.

Just be careful, know the warning signs and make sure those around you know you're on these meds so they can help you if & as needed.

[SemperVee]

 Wow, those two stories are a smack of scary reality! Thanks guys.   I see my Dr. for followup and will discuss other meds if applicable and open that new bottle of Macallan I just bought to contemplate the future.

[Ncdan]

Just released from hospital for PE and placed twice daily on blood thinners.   Anyone here of our mature Gentlemanly  audience still riding while on blood thinners?
I'm on Eliquis for my 2nd PE and thinking I may have to stay on meds remainder of my life.

Easy to say no one gets out alive anyway - But contemplaitng doing without what I have been doing daily riding for 48 years now with only one accident all that time.  How have you handled it?  Rode less or gave it up?     I also ride a Bicycle but less fear of that.

Signed Pondering what to do with Risk Managment about this.

What is PE?

[ejs]

Been on Eliquis some years now. No thinking about ut.👶 Ny heart is a bit lazy. Also got a ICD.
Driving my MC as I always have.

[blackcat]

I was using Brilinta and it has the usual side effects of bleeding and bruising. It is only effective for one year according to testing, the insurance company only paid for that one year and I wasn't going to kick in the $400 bucks per month for that medication.

Anyway, if this medication is an issue for you then I wouldn't ride for awhile. No use adding to your medical problems. 

[cookiemech]

What is PE?

.

Pulmonary embolism. Blood clot in lungs.

[mhershon]

I've had a couple of PEs, the first after a long airplane flight, the second a surprise. I took Warfarin for years, even when I had other choices. I knew that the antidote was always available, even in the small towns I'd ride through on motorcycle rides. I ride both the bicycle and motorcycle. Just a few months ago, since the start of the pandemic, the Veteran's Administration took me off Warfarin and switched me to Eliquis. I don't seem to bleed as much when I cut myself and my arms aren't masses of bruises after I work on my motorcycle. I no longer have to watch what I eat as I did when I took Warfarin. I assume they switched me so I would not have to visit the hospital every month or five weeks for blood draws to check my clotting level - during the pandemic.

When the VA switched me to Eliquis, I emailed the pharmacist at the Anti-Clotting Department at the VA Hospital and told him that I take long trips on my motorcycle and ride on secondary roads in the country. I am often far from a big city and big-city hospitals. If I crash, will I be worse off than I would've been on Warfarin? That's a good question, he said. I think the procedure would be the same as it would be on Warfarin, he told me. I think you'll be okay.

This is the first I've heard about these lingering bleeds, and this is not comforting news, as you can imagine. I believe I'll write my VA pharmacist again. When I hear from him, I'll post again...

[Ncdan]

.

Pulmonary embolism. Blood clot in lungs.

That’s not good:(

[PilotJet]

Been on Xerelto for 4 years, and on it for life. Never thought about not riding.

[n3303j]

Been on Warfarin for potential clot prevention due to atrial fibulation (afib). Been on it for over 10 years now.

T-boned BMW car on Ural and I'm still alive.
High sided the T3 and woke up on pavement and I'm still alive.
Never considered stopping riding.

NUMBERS:
FIRST - The warfarin dosage I take keeps my INR between 2.0 to 3.0.

SECOND - I am self monitoring. Once a week I produce a drop of blood and deposit it on a test strip in a handheld device. About a minute later it beeps and displays the INR of the sample. I enter this figure on a website and it is reported to my doctor. If i am out of INR range I'll get a call from my doctor suggesting dosage changes. I'm not fussy about what I eat. My INR is in range most of the time. Meter went cross country with me. With self monitoring the warfarin routine is a minor inconvenience, not a deal breaker.

https://diagnostics.roche.com/us/en/products/instruments/coaguchek-xs.html

[JayDee24ca]

I've been on Warfarin since an accident in 1983 resulted in several deep vein thrombosis's. Apparently I can't get off the stuff. When I have tried, I have found myself with more clots, lying in a hospital bed. What am I going to do; stay in the house for the rest of my life? Nope. I lead a normal (some might debate that) life. I stay away from the foods that can modify my INR as a result of the Wafarin, and wear a medic alert braclet, but other than that I just carry on. YMMV.
John D

[bad Chad]

Eliquis caused my dad all kinds of bruising and cuts that didn’t want to close.  It also kept him from stroking out for a long time.  We got to enjoy each other for years, in no small part to Eliquis.

[twowheeladdict]

Wow, those two stories are a smack of scary reality! Thanks guys.   I see my Dr. for followup and will discuss other meds if applicable and open that new bottle of Macallan I just bought to contemplate the future.

Sounds like you won't be using those over the counter top shelf thinners anymore if you go on prescription.

[Joliet Jim]

Plavix for the last two years after a couple of Angios and stents, I don't ride as much but that's primarily due to time constraints not the blood thinner.

[Chethro]

Been on Warfarin for potential clot prevention due to atrial fibulation (afib). Been on it for over 10 years now.

T-boned BMW car on Ural and I'm still alive.
High sided the T3 and woke up on pavement and I'm still alive.
Never considered stopping riding.

NUMBERS:
FIRST - The warfarin dosage I take keeps my INR between 2.0 to 3.0.

SECOND - I am self monitoring. Once a week I produce a drop of blood and deposit it on a test strip in a handheld device. About a minute later it beeps and displays the INR of the sample. I enter this figure on a website and it is reported to my doctor. If i am out of INR range I'll get a call from my doctor suggesting dosage changes. I'm not fussy about what I eat. My INR is in range most of the time. Meter went cross country with me. With self monitoring the warfarin routine is a minor inconvenience, not a deal breaker.

https://diagnostics.roche.com/us/en/products/instruments/coaguchek-xs.html

I have been doing this for 7 years. No profuse bleeding or bruising or much difference from before taking this drug. I do wear good riding gear. I just watch the Vitamin K I consume. It's easy to maintain your INR level. I have my routine down to pretty much taking 10mg a day. If I get above 3.0 I take a 5mg pill. By watching the vitamin K I don't ever go low unless I miss a dose. In that case, I just stay the course and the level will be back up above 2.0 in a day or three. I keep clot patches in all vehicles, but have never used one. If something bad happens, EMT's can give you the antidote to make you clot normally. Just make sure you wear a med alert bracelet, tag or keep an emergency card on you.

[stonelover]

81 years old with stents in both legs. Take 75mg plavix & 81 mg aspirin daily. Riding habits have not been affected.

[Lannis]

I went to the Ural rally at Meadows of Dan, VA (Willville campground) a few years back at Rich Maund's invitation.

Lots of Urals there.   A Ural sidecar outfit, loaded to the gunwales, pulled in, passenger in the sidecar.

The rider got off, and started pulling sections of tubing and a hydraulic pump from a bag, out of which he constructed a "cherry-picker" type engine hoist.   He then unfolded a wheelchair from the back of the sidecar and set it up.

Then he rolled the cherry picker over to the sidecar, rigged some straps, and lifted his wife out of the sidecar and into the wheelchair.   She was a quadriplegic, paralyzed from the neck down.   They chatted while he set up a big tent with a "front porch" and a tarp on the ground in front, into which the wheelchair could roll in and out, and set up tables and a really nice camp from the stuff he'd carried on that rig.

I was only there one night, but they were there for the meals, the nightly Willville bonfire, everything.

If those folks can get out on their bike and ride, and camp, and do everything everyone else was doing, I've got no excuse in the world ... NONE ... for letting anything get in my way, until I absolutely can't do it any more ...

Lannis

[ChuckH]

I've been on Xarelto for 7 years as a result of an A-Fib diagnosis.  I rode motorcycles for the first five of those years, then switched to my Corvette for trips to cycle rallies and general touring.  I've seen no ill effects from the blood thinner except minor bruising and a bit longer for cuts to stop bleeding.  At my age (now 87), my skin is paper thin so the bruising is just part of growing old.

[mhershon]

My pharmacist in the anti-clotting lab at the Denver VA tells me that a certain amount of waiting for bleeding to stop is common for people who are on thinners. He says that they have several meds that will slow the bleeding in patients using other anti-clotting meds than Warfarin. We ride at our own risk, is the bottom line, I'm afraid. I don't think we can count on small-town hospitals having the (expensive) antidotes to the newer anti-clotting meds. If other forum contributors know something about this, please chime in.

I am delighted with Eliquis. I don't bleed or bruise nearly the way I used to on Warfarin, plus I don't have to watch what I eat or ride 15 miles each way through Denver traffic to the VA to get blood drawn for an INR level every five weeks. But if something happens in Norton, KS...?

[SemperVee]

My pharmacist in the anti-clotting lab at the Denver VA tells me that a certain amount of waiting for bleeding to stop is common for people who are on thinners. He says that they have several meds that will slow the bleeding in patients using other anti-clotting meds than Warfarin. We ride at our own risk, is the bottom line, I'm afraid. I don't think we can count on small-town hospitals having the (expensive) antidotes to the newer anti-clotting meds. If other forum contributors know something about this, please chime in.

I am delighted with Eliquis. I don't bleed or bruise nearly the way I used to on Warfarin, plus I don't have to watch what I eat or ride 15 miles each way through Denver traffic to the VA to get blood drawn for an INR level every five weeks. But if something happens in Norton, KS...?

Since I battled with AFib and used Warfarin successfully on the first PE this time around after knee surgery and to make it easy the new Drs chose Eliquis. Luckily I am barely affected by the AFib these days. I just turned Medicare age and have no other co morbidities with the ability to stay in shape - I look like I am in my mid fifties so says my much younger GF!  LOL.. I am hoping to adjust to this via risk management and probably riding just a little less.  Psychologically getting use to ageing is hard when being normal meant staying very physical -  Health is going to make it hard getting to that last 100K to  1 million miles of road riding... :^)     

[redrider90]

This has been around since 2018 for reversal of Eliquis.
 https://www.dicardiology.com/article/fda-clears-first-reversal-agent-rivaroxaban-apixaban-anticoagulants
I have used Eliquis intermittently due to intermittent A-fib. When it became chronic I had an ablation in May of 2019. One month ago I had an a-fib event and self converted after 24 hours. I took Eliquis for 30 days and quit. I always carry it with me in case I go into A-fib. Ablations work well but not always. 14 months after surgery is considered a good thing even if I had a brief a-fib event. 
Overall Eliquis is considered much safer than warfarin regardless of using Vit K. My father died from a fall and had to be reversed from Warfarin in the hospital using plasma which is instant reversal.  He died of blood clots a week later. But they had to reverse him cause he was bleeding into his brain. My father had 2 inherited clotting factors which made him high risk for clots. I have 1 of the clotting factors (Factor V Leiden) which increases my chance of a clot about as much as it does for a woman taking birth control pills: about 5%.

[SemperVee]

 Thanks for the Eliquis jump site for reversal.  My dr said there was none but but fix with blood transfusion.
    Popular among us AFib crowd is called Flecanide for (PIP)  pill in the pocket emergencies.  I carry 100 MG pills for just that type of emergency.