Blood thinner side effects - has anyone found one type is better than another?

[VisaWoes]

DD is on rivaroxiban for life after PEs. They make her feel ill, stomach pain and tiredness. Sometimes she feels so poorly she tops taking them for a bit and then gets chest pain and starts again.

She's convinced the stomach pain is internal gastro bleeding and her iron levels are very, very low. She doesn't know how low as she is ignoring repeated texts from the GP to make an appointment but they did ring her up and asked if she'd been in accident and had a major blood loss so I'm assuming very low.

She is now taking iron tablets but isn't very compliant with this either. She's managed to take 4 tablets in a week and is meant to be on 3 a day!

I've told her to go and talk to the GP about a different type of blood thinner, but she says they'll all be the same. But google suggests apixaban might have less side effects.

Has anyone here not got on with one and then being better on another?

ON blood thinners. Sorry.

A relative of mine moved from warfarin to apixiban with no side effects and much less monitoring needed as it's more stable I believe.
This move was recommended by a specialist they saw while in hospital for something else. They said lots of GPS just leave people on the drug they are on for years and don't keep up to date with the advances. They are definitely NOT "all the same"!

Once the DOACS came along there was a push to get as many people as possible onto them and for gps to prescribe and manage. That was great for the majority of patients, but not all.
In some practices there is a culture of not referring patients to specialists due to cost and some people end up not getting proper investigation and treatment.
I worked in one such practice for a while and was pretty shocked tbh. They prided themselves on having the lowest rate of referrals in the county (for all conditions).
It is all very well saving money in one place, but if the patient ends up in hospital it costs the nhs more in the long run. Not to mention the pain and distress.

I was on apixiban for PE aged 41. I didn't have any problems with it. Although I don't take them anymore but do feel niggly pain in my upper back from time to time with sharp pain through my shoulder. But doc just fobbed me off and wanted me to sit in A&E for 14hours for a d-dimer test. Ask to change if you're not happy with what you have.

That isn't fobbing off. It is exactly the right course of action to rule out a recurrence of PE.

Scary stuff.

I have protein C deficiency and first went on warfarin after a massive DVT and PE when I was 18. I came off 6 months later. No problems but INR was a pain.

Had another smaller DVT about 8 years later and was put on rivaroxaban for life. No issues.

Have also been on heparin injections whilst pregnant and breastfeeding which were also fine.

Def needs investigating OP.

Not knowledgeable about blood thinners but I've recently finished a course of iron tablets - just one a day. I've been taking them first thing in the morning before eating, washed down with water and a small glass of orange juice. Then nothing but water until breakfast an hour later. I was very worried that they would upset me but apart from having sticky black poo I was fine. So maybe if she kept them by the bed she'd remember to take at least one a day?

I've read that taking more than one a day is pointless because there's a limit to how fast your body can absorb iron. Also avoid tea within a couple of hours of the pill, not just because of the caffeine, the tannin in tea also inhibits absorption.

It was amongst other worries I had to that I don't want to go into.

Well she went to the dr

She said he was useless, that it was like talking to someone with no medical knowledge. He asked her why she was still on blood thinners if she no longer has a PE!

Then said that changing blood thinners would make no difference to how she feels or to her iron levels or to anything. He said they're all exactly the same and refused to discuss it or her anaemia.

ffs.

And she's so tired at the minute she just can't function, she sleeps all day and all night. She isn't fit enough to work or leave the house. This isn't normal.