Flecainide at home or hospital?

[Lawson101]

When you began flecainide, was it at home or in the hospital? Did your doctor monitor you? They are starting me at home and no monitoring.

[Finvola]

Same here Lawson - home with no monitoring on 2x100mg. Interestingly, I was monitored when I started Sotalol but the monitoring on the fourth day missed my bad reaction on the fifth day!!

[Lawson101 in reply to Finvola]

Did you have any side effects? Dizziness?

[BobD Volunteer]

It must be nearly fifteen years since I briefly took flec and from memory I did not go to hospital but I was also on atenalol to counter any possible flutter. Once I saw my EP he switched me to propafanonewith no beta blocker is this does have some beta blocking affects as well as anti-arrhythmic.

[pottypete1]

It was decades ago when I started taking Flecainide.

I was not monitored at all and in all the years I have been unaware of any direct side effects.

Probably for 10 of those years I was on repeat prescriptions.

Now I see my EP every 6 months and we discuss Flecainide but the general conclusion has been to stay on it as long as my heart is relatively calm compared with the majority of the many years I have suffered with heart arrhythmia problems.

Pete

[jeanjeannie50]

Yes, I was started on Flecainide in hospital while I was wearing a heart monitor. Then had an ECG at my doctors surgery after being home for about a week.

Jean

[Hidden]

Just told to get on with it!!

[Tyson4ever]

Took mine the first time I needed it in the cloud forest in Peru😕

[RiderontheStorm]

Carry for Emergency only as Pill in the Pocket - 3 - 100MG to get NSR.

[Jans5]

Pill in pocket at home no monitoring. Stopped taking them when they started making my heart go weird and taking longer to work advised by consultant not to take again as they had become proarythmic.

[Gillybean123]

Hi there, I wasn’t monitored either just given it. Best tablet I have ever taken. Xxx

[Hidden]

No just given it, no side effects except no AF

Andy

[Morzine]

I was just put in with it no monitoring.....I was also put in bisoprolol at sane time and apixaban.....I got some dizziness but think it was bisoprolol...but who knows....the tablets take a while to settle down I was told and it was true......I see flecaide as my savior as everything calmed down heart wise with them.....

[Angie06]

I was started on it 11yrs ago in hospital after my first AF episode. I take 2x50mgs daily with no real side effects (hot flushes and occasional ectopics) and no AF but definitely no monitoring unless I ask for an annual blood test to check levels of potassium etc and my cardiologist wrote me off last year after I had my LAAO device fitted. Feeling good so letting sleeping dogs lie! 😀

[dexter8479]

My first AFib was about ten years ago, ended up in the Emergency Department. A Flecainide tablet was put into my hand, just as I reverted to NSR, and I didn’t take it. Many months later, my GP mentioned I should be prescribed it as pill in pocket, but it had to be by a consultant. At my subsequent cardiologist appointment, I asked for it, but was told that it could only be given initially in a controlled ie hospital scenario, and as I hadn’t taken it then, I couldn’t get it now. So the years passed, I had several episodes, but sat them out without going to the ED. It was only when I discovered this forum that I learned so much about this condition, discovered what electrophysiologists are, just as I was entering a phase of more frequent episodes/stress. I had a private consultation with an EP, who immediately prescribed Flec, and who explained to me that when I started on the AFib train years before, the supervised initial dose was the only approved approach in the NHS. This had arisen entirely due to, surprise surprise, - money - in countries without nationalised medicine (ie the US). Obviously a lot more money is to be made when a patient has to be in hospital to start on a new drug in non nationalised health countries, and at first the UK health service copied the US model, and made it the norm here too. Over time, it was realised here that there was no clinical basis for this ‘rule’ and was overturned. Of course, I had been discharged from cardiology after the first year with my bisoprolol and aspirin and lived in ignorance until I had the great good fortune to find the wonderful people of this forum. So, as I understand it, it is perfectly fine to start Flec on your own, and that was my experience. It is a thing of wonder...😉

[Hidden]

On 50 mg twice daily since last August. Started at home & had check ECG 2 weeks later. ( private cardiology appointment initially & one follow up).

Pat x

[Maril1]

When I was first prescribed flecanide over ten years ago I was suffering from permanent aflutter but no drugs worked only cardioversions. The Aflutter was cured by ablation around 2008 but developed proxy Afib the consulted put me on a high dose of flecanide as pill in pocket but I had to test it out at heart emergency department on the first three occasions that I had an episode. When questioned the Ep said that flec can cause very serious life threatening arrhythmias in some people. Flec worked but I felt spaced out/ groggy afterwards now I just go for a walk at an high pace HR through the roof but normally reverts within the hour , I get some kind of buzz ! What a feeling !

[KMRobbo]

I was on it 10 months I had an initial hospital check bloods & ecg as I was cardioverted by flecainide infusion. Before going on 2 × 50mg

I had a 3 month follow up ecg only.

[Hidden]

I was initially given it in the hospital after the drug they usually use failed to convert me. Thankfully, my conservative cardiologist, is loathe to use the paddles to convert as they cause memory loss etc., and he said many patients have trouble with the sedation. He ordered 200 mg of Flec and within an hour I converted. As I have said before, I was initially sent home with instructions to take 100 mg daily, but it lowered my heart rate to the point I was non functional. Thus, began my journey with Flec as a pill in the pocket. That was back in 2003 and it was the last time I ever had to be hospitalized for A Fib. I went several months with no episodes until I decided to test out the theory that it was a high carb diet that was causing it. The other day I ate several movie theater size boxes of candy, and drank lots of Gatorade and Orange Juice and sure enough, I went into A Fib that night. My wife confiscated the last of the candy and I am back to feeling great, after being roundly scolded.