Flecainide acetate/Tambocor 50mg

Hi pacers!!!

Went to hospital today, had been feeling strange last few days. Had pm interrogation and echocardiagram and the consultant checked me over.

He said that the feelings of whooziness had been caused by the top part of my heart fluttering at up to 300 beats per min for up to 3 mins at a time. Is this what you all call A fib??

Doc said that if it was in the lower chamber I would be a gonner, but in the top it isnt so dangerous. He told me to take half an asprin a day to prevent blood clots when the blood is whirling around in there.

He prescribed me 50mg of Flecainide twice a day and said that it may alleviate the problem. He also said I may get some bad effects from it and that I didnt have to take it if I didnt want to, He's asked to see me again in 3 weeks.

My bp is high and the doc said that it may help lower it.

Having read the contraindications to this drug I am terrified to put it in my mouth, dont think I can take it. I dont 'do' medication and really dont want to.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks HH

9 Comments

Try it

by Angelie - 2009-05-22 04:05:29

Doctors should be able to tell you if it's Atrial Fibrillation, or Atrial Flutter. You can easily tell on an EKG which one it is, but both can cause atrial rates of 300 or so.
The top part of your heart is pumping so fast that it's sort of like quivering. Not all of these quick inefficient beats actually gets through to your bottom chambers so your heart rate doesn't always reflect this high rate. I know you can feel it though.
Your on aspirin because these rapid beats can place people at risk for blood clots.

I have been on Flecainide before up to 100mg twice a day. Although not everyone responds the same way, it worked for me. I quit taking it, because like all of the other medicines that I've tried, it eventually stopped working and my symptoms returned.

Flecainide is not as bad as the side effects from Amiodarone, or Tikosyn.....so in the realm of things I would try it.

Like your doctor said...it might help you, and the benefit it provides you with might outweigh it's small risks.
I say, don't knock it unless you've tried it. And as your doctor states, you can always stop taking it once you tried.

I wasn't given any drugs for my atrial flutter. I was DC Cardioverted, which only worked for one day, and then sent back for my 5th ablation.

I was SO incredibly miserable living with continuous flutter for weeks, I would have tried anything. I guess it depends on how the flutter or fib is affecting your lifestyle.

Good luck

if you read the label

by Angelie - 2009-05-22 04:05:39

Believe it or not, a lot of heart and blood pressure medications side effects can be pretty scary if you read them all.
My nurse actually told me NOT to read the side effects of Amiodarone because she said I would automatically refuse it. I read them anyways:
can cause blueish-gray skin, lung scarring, liver damage, cataracts, and allergic reaction to the sun.
At 33 years old, that was and has been the only drug I refused to take in my many years of being a heart patient.

My point:
All drugs have side effects. Some of them are quite scary, but they don't always occur. They're just liable to list all of the possibilities....just in case they do...they can state that you've been warned.

I don't like medicine either....never have....

thanks angelie

by Hot Heart - 2009-05-22 04:05:59

I panicked when i read that this medication can cause death. What I was thinking was that I would sooner put up with the fluttering and be alive than the other option.

I was given some water tablets a few months back to try to help with the high bp and stopped taking them because they made me sick. I think I'm going to give them another go and take the asprin and see if that helps, see the doc in 3 weeks and tell him i'm scared to death of taking these tablets and see what he says.

I feel such a scaredy cat when you lot on here go through so much and are so brave.

Thanks HH

tikosyn

by thomast - 2009-05-22 06:05:20

I do not agree with Angelie on Tikosyn, I have been on it for 4 years with no known side effects.It was so great when I got off of Sotalol and onto tikosyn. On sotalol I had been sick for 3 months, lost about 40 lbs because I could not stand to eat anything. So as far as I am concerned, Tikosyn is wonderful.

Fact...not opinion

by Angelie - 2009-05-23 08:05:20

Thomast,
You state that you don't agree with me about the Tikosyn. I wasn't posting an opinion, but mere fact..

Read the PDR also known as Physician's Desk Reference. Straight out of the text.....
Or look it up on the net.

Just wondering if you were hospitalized for the recommended 3 days for Tikosyn treatment?

Tikosyn as with lots of other drugs, have many listed side effects but not all them manifest themselves. I'm glad that you haven't had any of those side effects that I mentioned as possibilities with Tioksyn, but I AM SERIOUS. Believe it or not....I would never post anything like that if I knew it were not true.

Angelie

Sorry, Thomast

by Angelie - 2009-05-23 08:05:43

I got confused......
I was thinking you were talking about Amidarone, and not Tioksyn.
Tikosyn and Amiodarone are very similar acting, but Tikosyn is the one that doesn't have the bad effects as Amiodarone has.

Sorry, I got all confused. My bad......
I refused Amiodarone, but tried Tikosyn- but unfortunately it didn't work for me. It was my last chance drug before they resorted to pacemaker insertion.

Once again, sorry for getting mixed up. Tikosyn IS NOT as bad as Amiodarone.

Let me just hush, before I have to insert my foot even more.....sorry.

Angelie

confused! lol

by Hot Heart - 2009-05-24 04:05:51

Hi thanks for the info. I'm not sure if the drugs my cardio prescribed actually stop the fluttering or if they just lessen the sensation.

At the moment the flutters arent too bad, reminds me a bit like a baby kicking inside you, not painful, not even really that uncomfortable, just unsettling.

Presumably this is how everyone starts off and they get worse do they? I'll hold on to the medication so that if it does get worse ive got it here.

I'm taking my half an asprin a day to stop clots from forming in the atrium when i'm having my 300bpm episodes and i'm trying cranberry tablets to lower my bp. I'll keep you updated as to how this works.

HH x

I loved Flecainide

by nat36 - 2009-05-24 05:05:29

I just wanted to say that I was on Flecainide before getting my pm for about eight months and loved it. It made me feel so much better and stopped all of my irregular beats. Unfortunately, after having tests done on at my regular check-up... doctor said he thought it was time for an ablation because my heart rate was not being controlled by the Flecainide. It was still very high (about 130 at rest) and he did not like that. So then an ablation and pacemaker:)
I was really scared about the Flecainide as well. When my doctor first mentioned it, he said go home and research this medicine and then we will talk about it in a month. I did not want it after reading all the scary things but he told me he thought that the benefits outweighed the risks. He was right for me. You just have to decide what is right for you, but it made a huge difference in my quality of life while I was taking it.Good luck!

Thanks nat

by Hot Heart - 2009-05-26 06:05:14

Hi there, I've picked up the medication so I do have it here and will try it if things get too bad. At the moment though i can hardly notice the flutter, now i know what it is im not so worried about it and it just feels a bit wierd rather than really bothering me.

Thanks for all the replies HH

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