I've always had to swallow my Flecainide tablet with great care but last night I wasn't careful and the 100mg tab got stuck high in my throat. Searing pain, choking - water, solid nibbles even butter wouldn't shift it. Eventually, it degraded enough that I could get it out.
The tablet is medium-sized, rough and degrades with moisture contact which makes it cling like a limpet. It left me with hours of pain, sipping water and occasionally olive oil. Oh, for a buffered tablet or a capsule!
Dipped this morning's tablet in honey.
Written by
Finvola
To view profiles and participate in discussions please or .
I read some where that the best way to take tabs was to drink from a bottle it works to you always put your head back and they go straight down give it a try hope it works for you to .
I got a magnesium capsule stuck in my throat last week and that was bad enough and taught me a lesson, not to swallow a handful of meds in one go...
I have still to take my first dose of Flecainide , it's been sitting on my shelf since the end of November waiting for a 'safe' time to take it having been instructed by my GP 'not to take the first dose at a busy time in case I need an Ambulance' . Hopefully that will be very soon now.
I have mag tablets which I call my horse tabs - too large to contemplate!
I took my first dose alone and was OK - like you, I picked my time by avoiding a bank holiday - just in case . . . Best wishes with it, should you need it.
Hi Doodle68, I understood that the drug Flecainide should be taken under medical supervision for the first time usually in a hospital setting. Has the GP discussed this possibility with you.
And doodle68 not as far as I know. It must however be PRESCRIBED by a cardiologist. Mine was prescribed following an EP appointment. I didn't switch meds initially (from bisoprolol) so my GP was aware once I'd made the decision to follow the EPs advice. The 'problem' is that sometimes Flecainide can make your heart race. I think most of us who use it here do so either with a calcium channel blocker or a beta blocker which addresses that aspect of the Flecainide, so it can do it's just b of rhythm control. That's my understanding as a non medical person.
Hi FM and Singwell 🙂 it's a long story of cancelled appointments due to Covid, then seeing 2 Consultants EPs one privately, one in a clinic , then a private Echocardiograms to finally get a prescription of Flecainide . So yes thank you all possibilities have been discussed and I am aware of the need for BBs and and ECG a week after commencing the medication to check for LGT syndrome . I also have daughter in law nurse practitioner on standby to be here when I take the first dose after lockdown ends.
That’s horrible, had similar caused by osophagus spasms. I was advised to take tablets with a viscous liquid - I now take with yogurt or yogurt drink but I guess that’s difficult with Flec.
Thank you CD - I was amazed how much it burned my throaat for hours afterwards - the stomach must be a strong organ. I haven't tried yoghurt - I'll give it a go. xx
So sorry to hear. That must have been scary. Can you crush them up or do they have to be swallowed whole? I crush my dog’s tablets between two spoons. (No comparison intended!) 😀
I find the taste foul PH - I had thought of crushing them and filling empty capsules which I bought - for the dog's worm tabs, which she hates and can smell a mile off. Didn't work with her! I'll try CD's idea of yoghurt - my problem is the roughness of the tab itself - it sticks like glue! The honey worked well this morning too.
Going off on a tangent CD, but I’m curious about your oesophagus spasms.
I occasionally get a horrible sensation when I’m eating, a pain in my throat as though my food is stuck. The closest description is the pain which went through from my back while eating ice cream as a child.
I had an endoscopy but they only found a raw area at the neck of my stomach; nothing further up. I’m thinking now that it might be a spasm like the ones you experience.
It’s very unpleasant. I first had it following a TOE just prior to ablation. I didn’t find out until much later but the anaesthetist couldn’t remove the TOE from my osophagus because it had gone into spasm. The reason it went into spasm was because of a then yet undiagnosed neuromuscular autoimmune condition which causes muscle spasms when a muscle is overly used. It left me with a lot of digestive problems for a long time - which is how I ended up knowing such a lot about it - trial, error, research and joining up the dots - with the help of quite a few doctors! If you look back to my posts around 2014 you will see that posted quite a lot about it because at that time, I was taking Dabigatran as anticoagulant - which also caused a lot of digestive problems for me.
The osophagus is layered and mostly striated muscle and mucous layers and connective tissue so is easily scratched and if damaged, it can become quite a problem.
I’m just realising since reading your post, that I’ve only experienced it since my TOE, and although I had no problem with the procedure it may have brought it on. Interesting. I must say it doesn’t happen often enough to be a problem, but usually happens when I’m really hungry and it makes me nervous to take another bite!!
Sure Fin - I agree. I wouldn't fancy any tablet not going down propery.
Just a thought - maybe break it in half - take that and then the next half right away ? It will still kick in the same way and might help so it doesn't get blocked in your throat.
I've not heard of the make Tambacor Flecainide in the UK. Thought was only in the U.S. I'll only accept Accord Flecainide, because that's the one that works for me. Odd how all these pills that are meant to be the same differ isn't it!
Apparently generics have the same active ingredient but the “soup” they are enclosed in can be different. There are something called “certified”, or something like that, generics that are identical to the authentic drug and are often made by the same manufacturer. They can be slightly more expensive. The “soup” can change the effect of the generic drug.
Try drinking water as well before you take the tablet. I hate those 100mg as well. I try to take them with a big rush of water. I didn’t find yogurt worked for me and there is the issue of it being milk based. Horrid experience for you. 🙁
Awful, I have this with the hard capsuled Pradaxa and have to eat a dry biscuit afterwards to make sure it goes down. With a lot of drugs they are 'time release' so you can't empty capsules or crush tablets etc., they have to be taken whole and then release slowly in the stomach where I guess the digestive juices take care of the fallout lol.
Don't know why flec tabs are so coarse and sticky, but because they cannot be taken with food we have to develop a process. Mine is to rinse mouth with water, gather saliva in mouth, place tabs in saliva and then quickly slosh it down with a glass of water. Works well for me.
HiI take a slow release capsule 200 mg of Flecainide. Much easier to swallow and only one capsule a day. However useless if you only take Flecainide as a PIP 😊
I live in France so don't know if they are prescribed where you are?
That's horrible and I know exactly how it feels. Had to throw away an almost full bottle of multi vitamins for that reason. Paul's advice is good and also what I do. I also agree having a swallow of water first - no pill - and practising the tipping the head back technique without the pill is a good strategy. Finally - why not request the 50s which are easy to swallow and I'm a terror with tablets!
Gosh poor you, I take flec and I’ve never given it a second thought, will make sure I gulp plenty of water. That’s sounds quite scary .Recently I made a huge mistake as I had to take antibiotics two of them before the dentist....I didn’t read the packet, but as I was putting the two in my mouth I did think god they’re big..... well as soon as they were in and I gulped some water to swallow thrm they exploded into a huge mass of endless thick froth, which I tried to swallow down and it was awful trying to swallow the froth as it was making more froth........they were of course dissolvable not normal tablets.....moral of this is read the packet.!
I ive in France and take a slow release form of flec that dissolves in the gut. It's a capsule. See if you can get it from your doc. It's easy to take.
How unpleasant for you. I take flecainide as a PiP and the tablet hasn't stuck yet when trying to swallow. However, three years ago I was on a course of ciprofloxacin, and the tablets had to be taken with a full glass of water. Nevertheless one stuck and and I developed esophagitis, it took about 10 days to clear.
I have found the older I get the more I have difficulty swallowing tablets, capsules less so. My magnesium tablets are huge, and I experimented breaking them in half and just crunching them. Not a pleasant taste but not unbearable. That is how I take them now!
Thank you so much to everyone for your excellent suggestions which I have noted. I tried the yoghurt tip last night and this morning and the Flec went down so easily that I didn't feel a thing.
During my 12 years of taking Flecainide there were a handful of occasions when I took the tablet dry, i.e. without water or any liquid. It had the most revolting taste, and the act of sucking it before swallowing it always numbed my tongue.
I had that happen a couple of times with the 50 mg tablet of Flecainide, which is small. From what I understand, the problem is that it dissolves quickly. Like you, I had hours of burning pain in my throat. As others have mentioned, drinking some water before taking the pill helped me and I haven't had a problem since I've been doing that.
I learned a trick about swallowing pills that don't go down easily from one of those health newsletters many years ago. I have to use this trick with my CoQ10 softgels, which are petty fat and always feel like they want to get stuck. Most people throw back their head when they take a pill, thinking that that will help it slide down. But that is the worst thing you can do. What you need to do if a pill doesn't want to go down easily is to LOWER YOUR CHIN all the way. That actually increases the space in your throat, and it should go right down. I first slide the pill all the way back on my tongue with my finger and then immediately take a big swig of water or juice, and then lower my chin as I swallow the pill. I have never had any pills get stuck with this method. .
But reading some of these posts reminded me of when I was a little girl. I simply could not swallow pills and it was always a fight with my Mother when I needed one, like an aspirin. She solved this problem by dissolving the pill in a shot glass full of Grape NEHI, which pretty much disguised the taste. Then I downed it in one big gulp, followed by the rest of the Grape pop. . For everything else, like vitamins, etc, she had to buy the liquid kind.
Content on HealthUnlocked does not replace the relationship between you and doctors or other healthcare professionals nor the advice you receive from them.
Never delay seeking advice or dialling emergency services because of something that you have read on HealthUnlocked.
that sounds horrible..
Flecainide breakthrough
How safe is flecainide
Flecainide 
Flecainide Instructions
