3 days in hospital

[trippinkansas]

my cardiologist wishes to prescribe a new drug to control PVC's and increasing Afib attacks.  It requires I be admitted to hospital for 3 days of observation while they monitor and adjust the medication.  My question:  I can't remember the name of the drug, and can't find anyone who has had this procedure.  It is being offered as an alternative to ablation.  Any info PLEASE ???

[twinbee]

Everytime my EP changed my meds, she put me in the hospital for 3 days to monitor me. I thank God she did. I was not a high risk patient, and when she put me on Rythmol, I had a very severe  and rare reaction, and spent the next couple of days in ICU. I would never be comfortable with starting a new heart med at home.

[BobRBob]

Sotalol comes with this warning but many physicians don't bother with the hospital stay because they are able to identify the high risk patients from their ECG and such patients are never prescribed the drug in the first place. I took Sotalol for a year with no dangerous arrhythmia resulting from it and was not hospitalized at the start.  

[tom_h]

bypeep is correct.  My PCP prescribed Sotalol for me recently.  The pharmacist warned me when I picked it up about the three day monitoring thing for new patients.  I could actually have caused another problem.  I informed my PCP, and never took the medicine.

[trippinkansas]

Thanks, the medication is Tikosyn.

[cindy707]

I would call the doc tomorrow and ask them exactly what the med is an ask them to spell it out for you....remember that medications are a treatment for a specific symtom where surgeries like ablations are a correction for the the disease.  Huge diff......once you get the name of the med i would re post so that members can weigh in on their experiences with the medication.  I would also ask the doc if that is what they commonly do with all of their patients that they give this med to...admit them for three days....nothing wrong with being cautious i always say.

[bypeep]

Amiodarone or similar?  I think that the hospital stay is because this particular type of drug can actually cause certain arrhythmia's in certain people.  Maybe search the forums for that name or google similar drugs and then search.  There are actually a lot of posts on here that deal with this type of scenario and some pretty useful first hand information.