After my hospitalization, my doctor insisted I had to take Xarelto, which I did for almost 3 years to prevent a stroke. I kept asking to be taken off of it, because even a small scratch would bleed for a long time and because of the expense. They refused to take me off.
Then, while researching Xarelto, looking for protocols to wean off the drug, I discovered the ‘Navigate ESUS’* trial where Xarelto was compared to low dose aspirin for stroke and blood clot prevention. There were over 7000 participants in the trial across the world. The result was that the trial had to be stopped early because about 3 times as many people died from bleeding with Xarelto than did the aspirin users, but low dose aspirin was just as effective at preventing strokes.
So I weaned myself off of Xarelto by decreasing my dosage by 10% every ten days. I did this by grinding 9 pills into powder and adding filler to make exactly 20 grams of diluted Xarelto, then weighing out 2 grams doses which I took for the first 10 days. The next 10 days, 1 ground up 8 pills and diluted it with filler, then 7 pills for the next 10 days, and so forth. I added baby aspirin to my daily regimen to replace it.
My primary doctor and my cardiologist were not pleased until I informed them of the trial results. It seemed that neither of them was even aware of the trial and its results. After I informed them of the trial, they were OK with what I did.
*ESUS: Embolic Stroke of Undetermined Source