Blood Thinners and Tinnitus and an Embedded Success Story

So, I ended up in the hospital due to a pulmonary embolism - a blood clot that makes its way to the lungs. Mine was apparently small. I'm healthy and in shape and never had something like this happen before.

Backtrack... 2 years ago I suffered severe acoustic trauma due to my own stupidity playing loud music. You can read that thread somewhere on here. But a tad over 2 years and I'm 99% better. I'm even trying to estimate if 99 is accurate and I think it is. I don't have any ringing. Recovery wasn't monotonic and there were long stretches of going backwards even, but I've returned to a relatively normal life after two years of hell, albeit, decreasing hell. I only have the tiniest little running water sound in my right ear in the mornings. I can't hear anything at all unless the room is perfectly quiet or I plug my ears. Still, my whole body has been altered where I have a hard time sleeping because I'm so paranoid about tinnitus.

Back to the present. When you get a PE, the doctors want you on blood thinners. Upon discharge, they gave me Eliquis. I'm sure you've all seen the commercials. F*ck big pharma and how they inject their products into the collective consciousness so even your doctors are brainwashed. Okay, maybe I'm being a bit over the top. But still, f*ck big pharma. And while I'm at it, f*ck everyone in the medical community who told me this was permanent. I digress. I get home and get in bed and all of a sudden I realize, "Oh, shit, my tinnitus is back." (Like how I censored the f-word but not "shit"?) It was the Eliquis, no question at all.

Now I'm in a situation where the doctors (when I can get around to seeing them, the health care system sucks in this country) want me on a blood thinner. And I've essentially told them no. In fact, I told the doctor today that I'd rather be dead than deal with tinnitus again. That's not hyperbole. I told my fiancee the same thing and that didn't go over well. But I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I couldn't do it again after those two years.

So, maybe I'm not here to ask any questions. Maybe I'm just here to state that I'd rather risk dying of complications from a pulmonary embolism than deal with tinnitus. I hope some of you agree.

While I'm at it, anyone experienced tinnitus due to blood thinners? Eliquis, Xarelto, Coumadin, Lovenox?

 

Blood thinners are known to mess with tinnitus, generally temporarily.

If you'd rather risk death than deal with the side effects of a potentially life saving drug, well, you're not the first person to make that decision, by a lot. I might have personally agreed before I had a kid; at the moment I don't but who cares? It's your decision, and you'll have to work it out with your spouse.

 

That's interesting for sure. When I first started reading it, I though you were going to say the blood thinner helped, not made it worse.

What is interesting is some claim things like Ginkgo Biloba help with their tinnitus and Ginkgo is known to at least increase blood flow in the head. They tell you not to take it with other blood thinners and even ibuprofen because it make the blood too thin.

I'm actually trying Ginkgo now along with some other things. Can't tell a difference so far, but it has only been a couple days.

Anyway, I had a vertebral artery dissection last year and they immediately put me on heparin for the night in the hospital. Then I had to take aspirin every day for 3 months. Thankfully it healed. I don't recall the tinnitus back then thankfully.

I'm glad you found what caused yours though!

Thanks,
Doug

 

My tinnitus definitely spikes when I take Xarelto... this is temporary and fades as the blood thinner half life wears off. Unfortunately as my base line level tinnitus has increased over the years as have my Xarelto induced spikes... making them almost impossible to bear without taking Benzodiazepines... a vicious cycle...

 

I had embolization to treat my DAVF last month. 5 days after the surgery I started having tinnitus in my ears. I highly suspect that it is the blood thinner, Eliquis (Apixaban). I have never had this problem before. I stopped using the blood thinner 3 days ago and I still have tinnitus.

Do you think it will go away soon?

 

I recently had a pulmonary embolism. I was put on Eliquis to prevent future clots.

My tinnitus has gotten worse... not sure if this is due to the Eliquis or not. My ear also feels a little clogged which makes it worse. Just started taking Sudafed to relieve the pressure. Not sure if this will help or not. I am told that I will need to stay on Eliquis for at least 6 months, perhaps a year, perhaps life.

Any other experience with Eliquis and tinnitus?

 

Nope, not the first one. I did that too and survived. If my tinnitus gets worse, I prefer death anyway.

 

Nobody here can blame you.

 

There is a major problem of polypharmacy across the world.

Many are on a variety of different medications for different aspects of their condition. One drug for blood thinning, another for anxiety, maybe another for sleeping.

No-one has ever done trials on how these drugs interact. You are basically an uncontrolled experiment.

We end up treating symptoms of an underlying condition that medicine cannot cure often for life.

Meanwhile as the underlying cause of the condition has not been addressed, it worsens. And of course the pharma companies get richer.

 

If addressing the underlying cause of tinnitus was generally possible then we wouldn't all be playing roulette with drugs.

Lacking an effective treatment, I'll stick with my somewhat effective pharma 2-drug cocktail!

 

I developed atrial flutter recently and was put on blood thinner Eliquis (Apixaban), while waiting to do a cardioversion or ablation procedure to reestablish normal heart function.

I have had tinnitus for a long time, basically since adolescence (a younger and foolish me, repeatedly standing next to guns discharging, listening to loud music, taking too many NSAIDs for headaches, etc.). Over time, I have learned to live with tinnitus and the ringing/whining noise that I have in both ears faded into the background.

After about one week of taking Apixaban, however, the tinnitus has become much louder. Indeed, I’m having trouble understanding what I am hearing in conversations or from television/radio because the tinnitus is so loud.

For me, it is very clear that the blood thinner is the culprit. I am taking no other medication and no other conditions have changed. I have not been subjected to loud noise recently. I’ve had nothing else that might have worsened my tinnitus.