Monitoring for A-Fib

[Jonathan_C]

Brief history - I am 42, healthy, with a structural heart abnormality.  I went into a-fib twice in 2015, the most recent was in October.  I was cardioverted both times. I have been on tambocor (flecainide) since October.  I started at 200mg/day, went down to 100mg about 6 weeks ago.  I saw my cardiologist yesterday and he has suggested slowly weening myself off the tambacor.  I will start by only taking tambocor on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

So there is a risk that the a-fib can come back by the time i take the tambocor as the tambocor will have enough time to get out my system in between doses.

He has obviously told me to monitor for a-fib.  I plan to do this by checking my heart rate using an HRM (a Polar H7 to be precise) regularly.

Any wise words against or for this approach? .... I mean using the HRM, not the weening off.

[BobD Volunteer]

Few monitors are accurate when you are in A F . Far better to take your pulse and note any irregularities. Of course you may well have AF events when asleep so that won't help.

[Jonathan_C]

Well...my weening off lasted a whole three days   before I went back into a-fib.  I skipped Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday and was back in a-fib on Sunday morning. 

I was cardioverted again this morning (3rd time in a year).  I will stick to 100mg tambocor / day from now on!