What to expect?

[Hatten28]

I have had AF for 16 years, had a pace maker fitted at the start and was prescribed warfarin, and sotalol which slowed me down a lot. Recently my AF has returned with a vengeance, had an episode from pm one day continuing through the night causing an ache in my chest and inability to sleep. Next day had an ECG at Docs plus a trace?. All well with my heart no damage etc, however my BPM was well over 1000 Dr increased my sotalol to 3 twice a day. I felt dreadful total breathlessness pains in my upper chest neck and back, returned to Docs who reduced the the sotalol to 2 twice daily, not much improvement so I decided to go back to my original dose of 2 am and 1 pm, feeling better today.

Also taking a larger dose of sotalol kept me running to the loo constantly, has anyone else had a similar reaction? I realise I should not have changed my dosage myself, but I was so tired with the pain and inability to sleep, caused me to take drastic action.

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[Hidden]

Running to the loo was probably from the a fib. Dont take additional sotalol doses without your doctors blessing as it is a drug with 2 jobs, slowing the heart rate and a rhythm drug. You might ask your doc if there is a different drug choice to try if it doesnt seem like Sotalol is chasing the a fib away.

[Hatten28 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you for the feedback, however the doc increased my dose of sotalol and i gradually reduced it back to my normal dosage.

Pleased to say I feel much better today apart from breathlessness.

Finding this forum has helped greatly, nice to know how other people cope with the same problems.

Was very interested in the dark chocolate theory, will give it a try

[Hidden in reply to Hatten28]

Sorry, I misunderstood. Yes dark chocolate I will vote yes for

[Hatten28 in reply to Hidden]

Thank you, will be interesting to see if the chocolate works

[Hidden in reply to Hatten28]

Even if it doesnt it will still be good😉

[allserene]

I can only add a tiny comment, which is that when I was first prescribed a beta blocker (Metoprolol), it was a 50 mg and turned me into a semi-dead zombie.. I decided to half it, but I called the Doc and told him what I had decided.. I didn't ask him, I told him. A week before, they actually stopped my heart for 5 seconds using a 50mg meto + some remnants of cardizem drip....... So betas are a monster used on me.... I eased off to zero using a 3 week down-ramp from only 25mg... The last week I was using 1 quarter of a tablet once day...but 2 days after I stopped, I got a 220 blood pressure and 160 pulse. I took a single 50mg, converted in 3 hours, and have been medication free since then (9 Nov)... Seems we all have our individual tolerance for medication, and nobody knows it better than us......

[Hatten28 in reply to allserene]

Thank you for your response, this condition can be scary.i return to Docs on the 28th January in hope that my af has settled down. Been taking my pulse regularly since reducing the dose to the original dosage and it has been steady and quite regular.

[allserene in reply to Hatten28]

Indeed.. once you have lots of info and experience about YOU, then YOU are your best Doctor..

[Hatten28 in reply to allserene]

Thank you very useful thoughts

[indy64]

Just for clarifcation, did you mean 100 bpm. 1000 would put you into bats and shrew territory.

Also, would not mess with Sotalol dosing. As with many anti afib drugs, Sotalol can cause a prolonged QT interval, which can sometimes lead to Torsades de pointes (TdP) which can be fatal.

I found this out the hard way. Was in the hospital for a few days for what I anticipated would be a routine Sotalol loading with a bunch of associated blood work to monitor my QT interval and ended up in the ICU with heart failure. Food sucked, too.

[Hatten28 in reply to indy64]

Thank you for the feedback, yes I meant 100 not. 1000,

Your article was interesting, but did not understand the abbreviations.

Glad to say feeling better but not good, would love to get some energy back in my life without the breathlessness.

[indy64 in reply to Hatten28]

QT & TdP: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug-...

ICU = Intensive Care Unit

[JeanetteH]

I have been on 40 mg Sotalol twice a day since August as Bisoprolol wasnt working and I needed a cardioversion last Spring .I had good rhythm initially with Sotalo but after about 6 weeks had irregular rhythm and side effects listed are that it can be pro arrythmia.My heart seems to have settled but maybe the Sotalol is causing the arrythmia for you and increasing it may make you worse?

[Hatten28 in reply to JeanetteH]

Thank you that’s an interesting point