Thank you for responses

To Alma Anna, Hopeful Heart

Thank you for your input and encouragement.

I do trust the Docs I have - I just don't know if I want to take the risk of the Sotalol meds or if that doesn't work, then it would be an ablation. I just want to understand and know the risks, etc. and was wondering if any subscriber to this blog had taken sotalol. Tachycardia is hard to live with, and I feel like I need to make a decision, but I have already decided I need more info and have told my Docs that.

For Tattoo man
This just is not relevant to my post, but I collect elephants

2 Comments

Sotalol

by golden_snitch - 2013-02-03 04:02:55

Hi!

I just read your first post. I have been on Sotalol, and did not tolerate it at all. It was a last resort drug for me, I had tried all other drugs that were available before. It's a non-selective betablocker and a potassium channel blocker and this combination is usually not prescribed for benign arrhythmias like PVCs. In my opinion treating PVCs with this - you wrote that the tachycardia subsided a lot since the pacemaker implant - is like cracking a nut with a sledgehammer.

What often helps with PVCs is a supplement combining magnesium and potassium, but before taking it, you should ask your cardio and get your potassium level checked.

If you still have episodes of tachycardia, and if it's some kind of atrial tachycardia, an ablation might work, too. It depends on what type of tachycardia you have. There are several atrial tachycardias for which ablation is the first choice treatment, because the success rates are around 97%. To cure these tachycardias is of course better than taking a drug every day.
PVCs are usually not ablated, unless they are monomorphic (caused by only one focus) and you have at least 15.000 PVCs/day - at least that's the lowest number I heard, but some cardios even say you need to have 20.000, before they ablate. You say you have them 2 to 6 times per day, now that doesn't sound like a lot.

Good luck!
Inga

Noob. PVCs

by floydlong - 2013-02-03 11:02:28

I'm new to the list even though I've had my pacer for 9 months. About a week after went home from the hospital after the implant my heart went crazy with A fib. I went back to the hospital then to ICU for two days until it could be stabilized. Since then I've had PVCs regularly, about 10-15 per min. Sometimes it makes me fatigued and short of breath. My magnesium level is a bit high but my cardiologist seems OK with what's going on. My ejection fraction has dropped from 60% two years ago to 44% currently. Just at my calculator and that's over 20,000 PVCs per day. I'm on Sotalol also. Any comments?

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Member Quotes

The pacer systems are really very reliable. The main problem is the incompetent programming of them. If yours is working well for you, get on with life and enjoy it. You probably are more at risk of problems with a valve job than the pacer.