Would love to hear opinions

Just another experience to add to the mix…I was put on amiodarone after other meds stopped working. One month of loading (200/day), and then on maintenance dose of 100/day. I have to say, it worked really well. Luckily there was a cancellation, so my ablation was early. I only had two months total on it. However, I had already started to have the visual side effects (glare and haze.). Research says this will slowly go away. ( I have an upcoming eye appointment so I will check.) I had been complaining to the EP about amiodarone. Happily, he had me (let me?) stop taking it the day of the ablation. And although it stays in the body a long time after stopping, he said it is stored in fat, so thinner people like myself are rid of it faster. The downside is that my post ablation heart rate is staying higher than I’m comfortable with. (I’m in the blanking period now.) It seems to be a trade off.

@koleke

Not sure your post was for me or someone else. I have been going to Mayo Jacksonville since 2006. My EP Dr. Kusumoto is outstanding and is the director of EP and Pace Clinic at Jacksonville Mayo.

I was in hospital last week for 5 days. Trying to find why my ventricles were going into VTAC. Started around end of January when I lost my PTSD service dog of 13 years.

Why was he a service dog? I was diagnosed with PTSD back in 2015 when I received 5 shocks in a 24 hour period. I was a complete mess and would not even leave home due to worrying about getting shocked and the embarrassment from it.

I had an ablation that did stop PVC in one area but my Holter monitor showed to other locations that could not be reached with internal ablation inside heart.

When CT Scan with contrast showed nothing worse than 49% blockage with all blood moving freely that possible cause was removed. Now they have turned off my LV pacing. My EP thinks it maybe the source of irritation to LV. Seems to be (going to knock on wood) so far but only been 4 days since turned it off.

@vtsun I am happy that you have had such a great experience and that your ablation seems to have been successful. Your elevated HR is/ought to be temporary, but I have read reports from ablatees whose HR was elevated for almost a full year...and then it reverted over time and dropped to a new normal (which in many cases is up to 10 BPM higher than previously). A heart beating in NSR and 77 BPM is nothing to be concerned about, even 87...although we would all appreciate it being somewhat lower. The takeaway is the NSR, that you can sleep, that your heart reacts when demands increase, returns to a resting HR, and that your 'heart rate variability' is near normal or normal. In case this is new to you, heart rate variability, you should look it up and consider if it's something you think you would like to use to gauge your heart's underlying health. Smart watches and smart rings these days, usually worn all the time, will do a pretty good job of determining HRV. Each morning, when you check your health app to see how the night went, one metric will be the HRV. If it's consistent and in a decent range, I think you should feel content and safe.

@gloaming Thanks. Good comments. I posted in another discussion about my high HR, which has hovered well above 100 for large parts of the day.

Hello ! My husband was on Amiodarone for probably 2-3 years. He has Advanced Heart Failure & is on the Heart Transplant List. We started going to a hospital that does heart transplants (we found out that his prior cardiologist had him on Amiodarone) & it was causing Pulmonary Fibrosis !! My Mother had passed away in 2020 from Pulmonary Fibrosis & Pneumonia so the doctor at the new heart hospital took him off the Amiodarone & he has taken Tikosyn now since December 2024.
It’s just my opinion but I wouldn’t take Amiodarone because of it causing Pulmonary Fibrosis !! I cared for my Mother & Pulmonary Fibrosis is a terrible disease. God Bless & help you.

@salpuck1979 did he have to stay in the hospital for three days when first taking Tikosyn?

Yes, they kept him in the hospital for 3 nights but it has been worth it !
It seems like sometimes medications stop working & my husband needed another medication.
God has been so good to my husband & our family !!!

@salpuck1979
I, also, was put on Amiodarone for over a year. Like your husband, I developed Pulmonary Fibrosis. My pulmonologist referred to Amiodarone as a "poison pill", and I was on steroids for months - which helped some, but not totally.

Obviously, not everyone who takes Amiodarone gets pulmonary fibrosis. Many cardiologists prescribe it, and it works well for some heart concerns. My opinion is that anyone who takes it should be closely monitored for lung issues and other adverse reactions (several of which I also had); I was not closely monitored. When I complained about symptoms, my cardiologist simply lowered the does from 400 twice a day to 200 twice a day.

I hope your husband does well.

Doctors at Mayo will be taking me off Amiodarone. They want me stop one month prior to my visit in October with the genetic cardiologist there. I'll have been on it for just over four months when I stop.

@abenn86 I am very pleased to see this. I have seen patients post here that they've been prescribed amiodarone, or even propafenone or flecainide, as a prophylactic against their hearts acting up after an ablation. They say, some of them, that they have not been instructed to wean themselves off of those drugs, normally via a two-three week 'taper' where the dose is reduced by a certain amount every few days or a week, so that when they have their Holter monitor event at 12 weeks or so, there is very little 'residual' effect from those masking drugs left in their systems and so that the Holter will get a proper assessment of their heart's rhythm. This, as a layman, is confusing to me: you would WANT the Holter to show what's really happening when nobody's looking, not a heart that's still nubbed by drugs. Did the ablation work, or did it not work?