Coumadin Side Affects/Effects

[Carol__0__0]

  I have an implanted defibrillator and was also on medication (norpace, nadolol, synthroid, and zoloft).  During the time that I was taking this medication I was always very tired.  At my last check up my doctor told me that I had experinced 24 episodes of attrial fibrillation.  My medications were changed; he eliminated norpace and added pacerone and coumadin.  Since I started taking these new medications I don't experience the tiredness.  Could the coumadin, by thinning out the blood, make the blood flow faster, bringing more oxygen to the brain faster?

[CCF CARDIO MD APS]

_
Dear Carol,
Interesting thoughts you have and although this is a possibility (all the effects of coumadin are not fully known),
it is much more likely that the norpace was making you tired.  Physicians are
lucky in a way because we have many different drugs to choose from that have the
same overall main effect (in your case that would be decreasing the likelihood
of an arrhythmia); it is usually unpredictable who will have what side effects
with which drug however, if and when a patient experiences significant side effects
we simply try another drug that hopefully does not produce the side effect.  In your
case it sounds like norpace simply made you exhausted and yet the pacerone does not.
The doctor put you on the coumadin to thin your blood so that the atrial fibrillation
episode you experience do not put you at increased risk for stroke.
Mind you Carol that the norpace may simply have failed to prevent the episodes of
a.fib which then in turn made you very tired, whereas the pacerone is very good at
preventing a.fib in your heart and wha-la no more tiredness.  I hope that this has been
of some help to you.  Good Luck.  
Information provided in the heart forum is intended for general medical informational
purposes only, actual diagnosis and treatment can only be made by your physician(s).