Pradaxa Alert - Is it worth it???

Pradaxa Alert! –

Pradaxa Bleeding Deaths

www.youblawg.com4/14/12 A new report released by the Food and Drug Administration suggests that more deaths are linked to Pradaxathan previousl

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Facing any serious Pradaxa or dabigatran side effects? Contact LevinLaw.com for attorneys experienced in Pradaxa lawsuits. … Levin, Papantonio, Thomas Mitchell, Rafferty & Proctor P.A. · Florida Personal Injury Lawyers …

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Pradaxa bleeding is hemorrhaging linked to Pradaxa, also known as dabigatran. This side effect has shown to be fatal.

I trust my Doctor  - but – I know the pressure Doctor’s today are under and no one can be up on every new development.

Do your own research!

Stingram.

I feel much better and I hope I do not have to get ablation number 2 for a while.  I am still on Multaq and Coumadin as a precaution but I hope to wean off the meds later this year.

My immediate goal is to lose some weight – a LOT of weight and hope that will improve the situation overall.

Multaq has some issues it seems with possible liver damage although this has not been proven yet.  I give God all the credit for my improvement.

It seems “I” am most likely the main cause for my Atrial Fibrillation onslaught and I am living proof that if changes are made you can beat this disorder…

If you have Afib – get it treated and make the changes you know you need to in your lifestyle to make it stay away.

Just Do It:

1.  Get your heart rate under control.

2.  Get your blood pressure down to the normal range – now 120/80 or less.

3.  If you have sleep apnea get it fixed – use a CPAP machine if you need to.

4.  If the meds don’t get your heart  back to a normal rhythm – get an ablation.

5.  Lose weight! – It will help with all your symptoms.

NEVER give up….  Atrial fibrillation can be treated – and cured!

Stingram

I’am  BAAAAAAACK….

My afib made a return appearance on of all days  9/11/2010.  I had been atrial fibrillation free since about May after my catheter ablation on 2/18/2010.  The afib sessions are shorter now and self terminate in about 24hrs.  I have had  three short spells of afib or atrial flutter since I started taking  Multaq.  I hope they stop all together soon or it’s ablation number two!!  I always knew the cure for this would probably take a while but I had hoped it was finished… somewhat depressing.

My doctor seems to think this relapse may be temporary and wants to wait and see.  The depression some atrial fibrillation patients feel is real.  I thank God for getting me this far and giving up is not an option.

Stingram.

Pradaxa has just recently been approved by the FDA for use in the U.S.

Pradaxa – or Dabigatran – it’s generic name eliminates the need to monitor INR in Atrial Fibrillation patients.

This is good news for atrial fibrillation (Afib) patients who are taking warfarin to prevent stroke.  It is well known that routine blood monitoring and varied food interactions have made warfarin a major hassle for patients for too long.

The  new drug, Pradaxa (dabigatran), looks as if  it may be able to provide the same protection as warfarin without the monitoring just take the prescribed pills and you are good to go.  Now you can eat whatever you want and not worry about some vitamin k getting in there to thwart your clot protection.

The findings were based on an analysis of a subgroup of 3623 patients from the RE-LY trial, which randomized patients to receive either warfarin, a low dose of Pradaxa twice a day, or a higher dose of Pradaxa twice a day, for a median of two years.

At the end of the study, there were no significant differences in the incidence of stroke or clot between any of the Pradaxa and warfarin groups.  Stroke or clot in other blood vessels occurred in 55 patients on low-dose Pradaxa, 51 patients on high-dose Pradaxa and 64 patients on warfarin.   However, patients who were treated with the lower dose of Pradaxa were 32-percent less likely to experience a major bleeding event than those treated with wafarin.

The days of going for regular blood tests to check your INR may now be over!  No more needles!!

It’s about time…

Stingram

Related articles

• Boehringer’s Blood Thinner Dabigatran (Pradaxa) Unanimously Endorsed (cenblog.org)
• You: US gives green light to anticoagulant Pradaxa (france24.com)
• FDA Approves Pradaxa, Marking a Major Milestone to Reduce the Risk of Stroke in Patients with Non-Valvular Atrial Fibrillation (prnewswire.com)
• New Atrial Fibrillation Drug Pradaxa Approved (webmd.com)

In case you missed it:

After an unexpected diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AFib), a type of irregular heart beat they had never heard of before, daytime TV star Susan Lucci and her husband Helmut Huber learned he is one of the estimated 2.3 million Americans living with Afib, which can increase the risk of stroke nearly five-fold.

The couple, who have spent more than a decade working with their doctor to help minimize Helmut’s stroke risk, today announced they have partnered with Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., National Stroke Association and StopAfib.org to launch a new national education program to improve awareness of AFib and its increased risk of stroke.

See how many celebrities you can name who have struggled with afib.

http://afibtreatment.com/celebrities-with-atrial-fibrillation.html

What Type of Afib Do You Have??

This type of afib is where most patients begin – they go to the doctor to find out what is going on.  The symptoms are usually not understood by the patient at this point and testing is started.

Paroxysmal Afib is recurrent and self terminating – meaning the afib stops on its own without medication, cardioversion or other medical intervention.  This type of Atrial Fibrillation can be difficult to diagnose because afib has to occur for an EKG heart monitor to document the occurrence.   This is a dangerous time for the afib sufferer, who does not yet realize how dangerous the condition can be – Afib is a major cause of life altering or even fatal strokes.  Anti-coagulation therapy should be considered immediately to lessen the stoke risk.

This Paroxysmal stage of afib may be treatable with medications or electro shock therapy (cardioversion) at this point.

The goal is always to return the patient to normal sinus rhythm – normal heart function.  Every effort is used to determine the underlying cause or causes for the afib and fix them.

For this type of AF, irregular electrical impulses are thought to start in the pulmonary veins, making surgical pulmonary vein  isolation by ablation an effective treatment option if medication and cardioversion fail to fix the problem.

The saying is “afib begets afib” so stopping the process in the early paroxysmal stage is very important to avoid further progression into chronic or permanent afib.

It did not work, in spite of being the first drug of choice for most doctors for Afib.  I later found out it also had the most and worse side effects of any of the atrial fibrillation rhythm restoring drugs I tried.  If that were not enough it made me sicker than the afib.

I did not like it – At All!

In spite of my experiences with the drug it has helped some people and is very cheap so here is some more info.

Amiodarone – A Review

I have been taking amiodarone since 1992 when my heart rate climbed to 185 while resting.Various drugs were tried without success.Over the years my ECG apparently was judged as abnormal until I managed to improve the control on my …

Publish Date: 07/06/2009 2:47

http://heartdisease.about.com/b/2009/07/06/amiodarone-a-review.htm

About 3 million people in the United States have atrial fibrillation, and it is estimated 16 million Americans will have the condition by 2050.  Stroke is one of the most serious complications related to atrial fibrillation.

We now know that in those patients with atrial fibrillation the clots that cause most strokes come from a certain area of the heart called the left atrial appendage.

Afib related strokes can usually be traced to this “appendix” of the heart 97% of the time.

Like the appendix, no one knows why the left atrial appendage even exists but during afib the pooling of blood here is a stroke waiting to happen.

A relatively new and simple procedure now exists to close or block off this atrial appendage.

The result is many afib sufferes may be abled to come off of some of the more troublesome blood thinning drugs like coumadin.

If your afib can not be eliminated and normal sinus rhythm restored at least this procedure may make you more safe from debilatating and deadly strokes.

Afib Treatment

The goal for afib treatment is to stop the afib and restore the normal, regular rhythm of the heart’s beat which means – regain normal sinus rhythm.

Steps for Afib Treatment – You must:

1.  Get back in sinus rhythm NOW – If possible!

2.  Avoid a stroke or serious long term damage to your heart. – Anticoagulate.

3.  Maintain sinus rhythm and avoid recurrences of afib.

4.  If the above fails – get your heart rate under control and anticoagulate.

Sometimes, this can be done with medications or the use of electrical stimulation(cardioversion).  If these efforts do not work, afib treatment concentrates on protecting yourself from the blood clots the fast and erratic heart rate may cause that could travel from the heart to the brain, causing strokes.

To reduce the risk of stroke, your doctor will immediately prescribe blood thinning medications, which can greatly reduce stroke risk if taken properly. While most afib related strokes could be prevented with blood thinners, up to two-thirds of AF patients who had strokes either were not prescribed these medications or decided not to take them!

Anticoagulants are drugs that can help prevent blood clots such as Warfarin(Coumadin). They can reduce the risk of first stroke in AF patients by 68 percent.  There are several reasons why current drugs are not being prescribed, including interactions with diet and other drugs, the necessity for frequent blood tests and monitoring and worries about increased risk of bleeding.  There are new drugs on the horizon that may have fewer of these complications.(see Dabigatran)

The above standard afib treatment may sound easy and straight forward – IT IS NOT!  As my own story demonstrates, Atrial Fibrillation and it’s control and/or cure requires time and persistence but to give up is not an option.

It is a class three anti-arrhythmic drug.  I got started on it about 2 years ago and on the second capsule my afib converted to normal sinus rhythm and has stayed that way ever since.

The drug does require a 3 day hospital stay for monitoring to get started but after that I have had no side effects except a slightly slowed heart rate.  I hope to stay on Tikosyn until the ablation procedures are more advanced and I can get this problem CURED for good.

Tikosyn is VERY expensive but you have to take into account the long term damage done to your health by staying in afib.  The hospital stay is to check for a rare side effect that may cause a ventricular arrhythmia that can kill you.

My doctor said in all the time he has prescribed Tikosyn he has never had a problem but regulations require the hospital stay as a precaution.

Try Tikosyn