I've had atrial flutter and SVT for many years. The AF is almost completely controlled with metoprolol, the other fast heartbeat (which they've determined isn't atrial flutter) gets worse with time and the metoprolol is increased. Recently--within the last few months, the metoprolol has pretty much stopped working and I'm having longer and more frequent episodes.
My new cardiologist--whom I've seen three times--gave me a prescription for propafanone and sent me home, only telling me that I'd have to have more frequent PTs for the first month or so. After picking up the prescription at Walgreens, the little warning paper they always include scared me to death. I did some research on the web and that scared me more.
My episodes are 2-3 hours long, and I can't stop them (I used to be able to stop them by pressing my carotid). I have 2-3 a day. Before my last increase in metoprolol, I was having 10-15 a day, but most of them were very short (a few minutes) and stoppable. I'd have the longer ones maybe once a day. It appears the increase in metoprolol handled the little arrhythmias and is allowing the bigger ones to break through. But is something as scarey as propanolol really indicated here?
I left my last cardiologist because she tried to do a flutter ablation and discovered when she got in my heart that she could only create fibrillation. She then told me I don't have flutter, and the new cardiologist agrees, after having put me on an event monitor for a month. (My EP back in Chicago had always told me I had a-fib and an SVT, so I wasn't really happy with the EP here in Albuquerque who convinced me she could cure my flutter and then it turned out the Chicago cardiologist was right all along.)
My question is: is propafanone safe and do I jsut need to go back in and have a talk with my EP, or do I need to find someone else?