Dr Sanjay Gupta...Treatments for AFib... - Atrial Fibrillati...
Dr Sanjay Gupta...Treatments for AFib..Flecainide
All the questions we want to know about Flecainide clearly explained. Thanks for sharing Steve.
Morning Jean, sadly Flecainide gave me shocking nightmares, I thought I was drowning, or being buried alive. I guess we are all individual and one drug doesn’t fit all. Sincerely wish it did. 🥺
Know exactly what you mean, have just reduced my 100mg to 50mg for a similar reason.
Good morning Jean,
I heard from Dr. Gupta this morning. He has been in Kenya for the last two weeks at the bedside of his very ill father. His father is now recovering from brain surgery and hopefully will be out of the woods soon.
Poor man ... I wondered why he'd gone so quiet.
I hope all is well with you x
Sorry to hear about Sanjay's father.
Yes, it will be 4 weeks since my cardioversion this Tuesday and all's still well. Go to see the AF nurse this Friday and will have an ECG beforehand. I got the impression that they wouldn't do any more for me if this one didn't last long, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. x
I’m keeping my fingers and toes firmly crossed for you Jean, hoping you stay in NSR for a good long time. And all the very best for your appointment on Friday x
Jean, is it usual to have an outpatient appointment after a cardioversion? I had a cardioversion October 2018 and that seems to be it. I have been referred for an Ablation but that could be the end of the year. Thanks. Phyl.
Fingers crossed Jean and no Phyllis, I didn't have a follow up appt. Just an appt about 3 or 4 months later when Cons said I could come back every year but chances were I wouldn't be in AF on that day so discharged me to request another appt if I was concerned. Dont think they know what a wait that would be!
Hi Phyllis
No, I don't think I've ever had a follow up appointment before. I don't know if this is something new they've started. I was also told to get my INR checked weekly for 4 weeks after the procedure, not had to do that before either.
Jean
Good morning Jean, thank you for taking the time to reply to my query, I guess I am old school and thought it would be routine. Good luck with your own AF journey I am following your journey on HU. I think we all need some sunshine so please accept a little sunshine imoji. 🌞🌝
Thank you for posting this, Steve. Flecainide is currently my best friend.
Thank you for posting this Steve, very interesting.
Flecainide has come to my rescue many times
Thank you for posting this Steve. An excellent, clear explanation of all aspects of Flecainide. This should be particularly helpful to people considering its use. It certainly has given me back my life in the last five years.
I am in the flecainide fan club too. As Sanjay mentioned 50 -100mg each day am wondering about approaching GP re further reduction. Got down to 50 mg twice a day a couple of years ago.
I am on 2X50 and have been for the last 8/9 years with very few breakthroughs- I went down to 1x50 and got immediate breakthrough- it’s a lot easier to avoid it that stop AFIB once it gets started - I normally have to take 3x50mg and it will go in 2/3 hours- but we are all different and I would suggest y/ou need to be careful at reducing the dose ..
Hi Steve, another thank you from a fully paid up member of the Flec Fan Club. I have been on 200mgs for 5 years without BB or CB due to already low pulse and BP. My cardiologist goes for, if QOL is good don't rock the boat by reducing the dosage and I am just on annual check up appt now but next time I will request another Echocardiogram to check the structure is still normal and quiz him again over a reduction in Flec. Meanwhile I continue to optimise my lifestyle & health generally. Best wishes.
Thank you Doctor for a very clear understandable explanation of Flecainide. I have had PAF for 18 years and was on 50 mg x 2 metoprolol all that time having two or three episodes a year.
I have an echocardiogram every two years. Last year I had three episodes of AF in a short space of time. My cardiologist changed me to Bisoprolol 7.5 mg and Flexainide as a PIP. I have not had to use that yet. I had heard all the scare stories about Flec but you have reassured me greatly. Love your channel. Niall
Been on 2 x 50 for one year episodes down from every couple of day to virtually zero , no side effects of note quite happy to stay on that and continue with healthy lifestyle changes, all the best !
Andy
As always, a very informative and well presented video from Sanjay. I have been taking Flecainide Acetate for 24 years now at a daily dose of 50 mg morning and evening. In my 20's and 30's I was working in Special Needs Education both directly and in an advisory role at the sharp end of challenging behaviours in children. It was a career I have loved but at that time was often very stressful and involved a lot of driving to very tight schedules. As relaxation I enjoyed a lot of running and took part in countless half marathon and 10k runs quite credibly. On one occasion in 1995, at the end of a very stressful day whilst driving home, I experienced what I later found out was an episode of tachycardia which scared the pants off me. I subsequently, from time to time, continued to have them. Always they lasted minutes or occasionally up to half an hour. But on one occasion things changed and instead of a rapid but regular heart rate it felt as though I had a bag of ferrets in my chest. I was near home and drove straight to A & E. Long story short - by the time I arrived and was 'processed' it had stopped! Over the next year of so I had just a handful more. By then I had 'self informed' myself and understood more fully what was happening. Then, as far as I was aware, both phenomena stopped and ten years passed. I still continued running but in a less intense way. In 1995 I had a further episode (very brief) and decided to visit my doctor. Whilst with him, he rang a cardiologist friend of his who suggested the dosage of flecainide (50 mg in the morning and the same dose in the evening). I have been taking ever since. During this time, I was also taking a 75 mg aspirin daily. I had no further episodes of AF (as far as I know) until 2006 when I had just one short burst. I was still enjoying non competitive running. However, as soon as I turned sixty, my doctor asked me to visit him. He told me that recent research had shown that aspirin was no longer recommended for AF at my age and recommended a daily dose of Pradaxa. He also booked me in for an M.O.T. with and electro - physiologist he knew we. This included blood pressure (at the time 126/64), blood tests, a CT scan and medication review. The blood test results were fine and the CT scan was aborted after just part one because the scan revealed no evidence of calcification or narrowing of arteries and a structurally very normal heart. I was 'sent packing' and offered a yearly 'catch up'. My last AF episode (as far as I know) was four years ago, very brief (just a few minutes), during a very stressful pre-holiday departure when the taxi for my wife and I failed to arrive promptly and threatened to stop our holiday before it started! Since then, nothing further. I have never had any perceptible side effects from either medication and it has never been suggested that I take any other medication alongside the flecainide. I count myself VERY fortunate in all of this.
I was given Flecanide some years ago taking every day 400mgs. I was so ill ended up in CCU made my AF much worse also had flutter. Consultant stopped it straight away. I will never take it again. I did have high hopes for this drug but it just wasn't for me.
Me too F!orence!!
Hi Florence, yes I understand some just don't tolerate Flecainide or it doesn't work for them. A couple of comments, firstly I am surprised you took 400mgs/day and that Dr Gupta mentioned this level as well; I always understood 300mgs was the max daily dose. Secondly, 100mgs didn't work for me at all so was offered an ablation by two cardios and an EP but requested we try 200mgs/daily which has worked now for 5 years.
Hi secondtry I was started on a lower dose then while on hols the AF got so bad had to ring GP on several occasssions while away on each occasion he told me to increase dosage. On return from hols was so ill my husband called an ambulance. On arrival at hospital I picked up on everyone's concerns about me, the cardiologist stopped it immediately and then had a somewhat irate conversation with my THEN GP regarding the dosage. He told me I mustn't take it again. I have never felt so ill but recovered quite quickly once it was stopped. For the moment I just take Bisoprolol and Apixaban and am doing quite well. How different we all are as I know people that feel really ill on Bisoprolol.
Too right about about the dreaded Biso! Three days on the lowest dosage of that nearly finished me off! Now, I only take it on the rare occasions when my heart rate is over 140 in an AF epsidode, 20 minutes after taking flecainide. We are all different. That is this forum's slogan. Perhaps someone could put it to music!
You were on an extremely high dose! My PIP is in 50mg pills and I tend to take two when I find I am in AF which stops it within 2hours as mentioned in the video. I d not take it on a regular basis.
Thank you SandiBee. That's just what the cardiologist said when I was admitted. My GP just kept increasing it. I now research everything and go armed with my concerns. Knowledge is power which I don't think some gps like.
Too right! But GPs can't know everything about everything and they seem to get trained to just tick boxes and if it's "x" give "y" and "z" in all cases, not realizing, as we do, that everyone is different and responds differently to different drugs! I've been using the slow breathing to end ectopic episodes with great success! Of course, they might have ended anyway, but a bit of slow breathing is always a good idea!
I had high hopes too Florence...not my drug of choice as a daily dose but ok as emergency PIP.....we seem so different with regard to AF and also AFL in my case ( rarely now thankfully)
Boo
Best wishes
Thats a shame - good to see that FR Gupta highlights this as a possible downside.
Thanks for this- I finally got to hear it all and discover why the doctors are scared to offer it initially even though an echo-cardiogram showed no problems with my heart. It works fine for me taking it as a PIP if/when I get an episode of AF and as the guy says my episodes are over within two hours.
