Amiodarone

[Ihatepalps2]

My 70 yr old mother never had any heart trouble in her life until she was hospitialized for 10 days in April for a cancerous tumor to be removed from her lung.Drs think that the combination of the surgery...stress...and all the BIG TIME pain meds she was given, along with all the other meds she was given at that time, set off her first bout of AFIB. They really had a tough time getting her heart under control---it was racing and took them quite a while to get it slowed. They were even talking about cardioverting her, but than god they didnt have to. They prescribed a BIG dose of Amoiodarone, and once her heart was in normal sinus rhythm, they sent her home. When I first researched Amiodarone..it scared me!!! It says things like' For Life Threatening Heart Rhythm Disturbances".... and tons of scary side effects.. It scares me! Shes not had a real episode of Afib since...and she might not, her cardio Dr told her...
so...Im wondering, will she have to be on that specific hard core drug for the rest of her life? Any, better,  less scary, med out there?

[Jerry_NJ]

Sorry for the hard health problems... I have enough myself to feel true empathy.  While I've undergone open heart surgery and numerous other heart related procedures, none have had any complications.  Thank god, I guess, and a great surgeon, nurses, ..

Yes, now I understand why there was a reluctance to use a shock treatment to cardiovert.

All heart rhythm meds that produce a cardioversion (non have ever worked for me, but then I've never agreed to use the "hard stuff") normally (to my understanding) have to be continued to maintain NSR.  When the elector cardioversions worked for me (for periods up to 18 months at a stretch) I still took one of the lighter arrhythmic drugs, specifically propafenone 225 mg every 8 hours.  AFig isn't easily gotten rid of (cured..ablation works for some).  AFib is also not considered life threatening, albeit it is a "strike" against one, and how much one goes through to prevent it depends on how problematic the symptoms are.  My symptoms are mild, I am currently taking only Metoprolol to control the HR and warfarin to reduce probability of clots.   All I have to worry about relative to my clotting is that I don't bleed to death, not really funny, but I like to laugh at my condition from time to time.

[Ihatepalps2]

well, at the time that her Afib showed up out of nowhere...she was in the hospital-she had had a lung lobectomy--one lobe of her LEFT lung removed----so yes, we all had a great fear of them having to cardiovert her physically at that time--with a freshly cut lung and a chest tube...and all that awfulness...I think even the cardiologist was trying to avoid cardioverting her at all costs unless absolutly necessary.
Im just wondering...you said the Amiod is also a method of cardioverting---so ...why is she still on it, two months later....?
Shes already on Warfarin---she had blood clots following her first surgery, mastectomy in Oct 08...she had an awful past 9 months for sure.

[Jerry_NJ]

I am not sure what your fear of cardioversion is driven by...here I assume you mean using electric shock, works great for many of us and no need for Amiodarone.  The Amiodarone is also a method of cardioversion, and it worked.  It may be that given her history it may be possible to put her on something softer, like propafenone/rhythmol or just a beta blocker.  

Did they put her on a anticoagulant?  I think that's the most important thing, and if her only risk factors are her age and the fact that she went into hard AFib in the hospital a simple aspirin may be sufficient for anticoagulate therapy.