Amiodarone??

Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
O

OrlandoTommy

Hello Everyone,

After much good advice on VR.COM i think im going to discontinue my 200mg of Amiodarone per day.

I have been on it about 2 months now and my eyes are starting to get blurry often and im extremely sensitive to bright light, just my eyes that is.

I have never had a problem with my eyes in my life, always 20/20. This is getting ridiculous.

I was put on Amiodarone originally after my surgery to help with a bout of Atrial Fib, that lasted 7 days and hasnt came back.

My heart has been on a close to perfect normal sinus ryhthm. My pulse is good and my blood pressure seems to be good.

I have called my Cardiologist and he has went on a missionary trip to Africa and will be gone 2 weeks, his nurses wont tell me if its ok to stop this drug.

Im due back in his office on June 7 and he said he would stop it then if my ECG and Echo came back OK.

I feel like im about to go blind, my right eye loses focus constantly, things are blurry in that eye etc.. its driving me crazy!

I have also had double vision about 6 times since surgery, every time I have wen to the ER, got cat scans, iodine cat scans, bloodwork, neuro tests etc.. and everything has been perfect, they said i didnt have a TIA either so i have no idea what it is causing the double vision.

I did have the double vision issue right after surgery so i dont think its the Amiodarone causing it, although im sure its not helping it, the Double Vision episodes have slowed down quite a bit but this blurryness is just driving me crazy.

I also bought the coated Bayer Low Dose 81mg Asprins today and im gong to start taking one of those every morning as well.

Here are the meds im currently taking:

Amiodarone 200mg Daily every morning.\
( Surgeon wants me on it for 3 months post op)

Coumadin 6mg Daily every evening.
(2.8 INR)

Toporol XP 100mg Daily every evening.

Any advice would be helpful, other than my VR im a very healthy 33 year old guy.

Thanks,
Tommy :confused:
 
Tommy, I don't know if this is a drug that you can stop cold turkey. Many antiarrhythmics must be weaned off. Please don't just stop it, or try to do it yourself. I had a bad reaction to a doctor, who was an idiot, stopping a drug cold-turkey on me.

Make sure your doctor helps you with this. If he is not in town and you don't want to wait, ask for an associate of his. They can't make you stay on a drug you don't want to be on, but they will also be responsible and tell you how to do it and what to expect.
 
I don't think you should start the Aspirin if you are already taking Coumadin unless your doctor tells you to.
 
Tommy:
I have been following your posts and feel so badly for the problems and concerns that you have. But, please do not rush to solve this without medical advice. Your surgery was a short time ago and it is not time for you to make decisions on your own.

Please DO NOT stop Amiodarone without medical advice. If you can'r reach your cardio, do you have a family doctor or internist who cares for you? (If not, you need one in future...and now.) Please contact your local pharmacist and speak with him about the drug, Amiodarone. He will know if it is advisable to stop it cold turkey. I believe that you might have problems if you stop, including a return of the a-fib. Stay away from the Aspirin for now. This is not the time to add another drug to your problems.

Right now, you need the benefit of medical professionals to advise you on the next step. Taking matters into your own hands with the Amiodarone could cause you more problems than you already have.

When this current situation is resolved, may I suggest that you use this forum and the net to learn about your situation so that you will have the information necessary to make good decisions. Al Lodwick's site is an excellent starting point. If you want other sources, people here will provide them.

Regards,
Blanche
 
Quick Update:

I talked to the doctor, i asked him if should take half a pill, or skip a day etc.. and he said to go ahead and stop taking it because i was already on such a low dose, he said the lowest dose is 200mg and you couldnt go lower than that so he told me to just stop it.

I have seen many posts saying that taking a 81mg low dose baby asprin can really help with TIA symptoms.

Thanks,
Tommy
 
I suggest you not discontinue this medication unless told to do so by a physician.

I'm served by an HMO and whenever my usual docs go on vacation, their nurse/assistants can swap out another doc in about 30 seconds.

I suggest you call your doc's secretary, tell him/her you need to see your regular doc's replacement and go see him/her.

Also, while I have found Valve Replacement.Com to be an invaluable resource educating myself about my impending surgery, I don't think it's a good idea to make any medical decisions based on what you see.

Finally, is it possible that your eye problem is caused by something else? I'm only 58 and I had to have cataract surgery in both eyes a few years ago.
 
You're fresh out of OHS and while I understand why you wish to stop this drug, it concerns me to read you are stopping a very serious drug without physcian guidance and starting another drug without medical advice.

Please reconsider making these changes without consulting a competent physician. It could be dangerous for you to do so. I don't know if it is or not but I do know that OHS certainly is serious and you are not that far out from it.

Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
 
Hello again Tommy,

In case you don't already know this, it is the responsibility of a Primary Care Physician (PCP) to coordinate all of your medical care from various specialists. For adults, especially with Heart issues, someone who specializes in Internal Medicine is a good choice. Otherwise a good GP or Family Practice Physician will do.

If you don't have a PCP, you really need to find one, soon. I would suggest asking your Cardio for a referal but if he is already gone to Africa, that isn't going to help much. Maybe your Surgeon could suggest one, or another Cardiologist in the same office.

You may also want to see an Opthalmologist about your visual disturbances. I suspect they won't find anything either, but it's worth a shot, especially if you find one who is at least aware of these kinds of effects following OHS.

Which Doctor told you it is OK to stop the Amiodarone? You really do need to be able to communicate with him in the event other reactions occur or your A-Fib returns. Then it will be necessary to find another drug that controls the arrhythmias. And as others have said, it is best to get an OK to start Aspirin therapy. If you proceed without medical approval, you may find yourself on your own as no doctor will want to take responsibility for an action they did not prescribe or at least concur with.

If you continue to have problems, make someone (MD) aware until you find some relief. The squeeky wheel gets the grease. GOOD LUCK!

'AL Capshaw'
 
It may not be the Amiodorane....It usually takes time for this drug to affect vision, trypically a longer term.

I think it is Anesthesia or Pump. MANY OHS patients have vision problems after surgery where they didnt before. Some possible explanations, Anesthesia in general can affect brain, but also small pieces of plaque can get stuck in brain from cutting. also heart lung bypass machine, you can get cholestorol in your blood which lodges in the brain (pumphead). you may have had a slight condition that you never noticed and surgery made worse.

It may get better as your recover. You may want to talk to a neuroopthalamologst. You could try pushups for the eyes, a drug or prisms in glasses.

My guess is the "double vision" is a result of some slight damage (pumphead)to the brain from either pump or anesthesia, this affects the coordinatioon of both eyes.
 
in regards to TIA's, in your situatuin if would/should eb the first concern however, I very highly doubt these are tia's and is actually a eye and/or brain issue.
 
my brother was on it. His dr thought maybe one of his meds was causing him trouble, dropped them one at a time to see and then added them back, but never took him off the dreaded amiodarone. I took him to see his eye dr for an exam and the dr knew immediately he was on heart med (It shows up somehow in the eyes). Bro was dropped through the cracks and left on it for a year and 4 months. He didn't have double vision, but he eventually had trouble seeing. It also can affects lungs. He had Parkinson-like symptoms which was the biggest complaint.

There are other meds to be used instead of amiodarone. I refused, once I knew the dangers, to allow any dr to give my brother amiodarone.

We have plenty of discussions in VR - just look them up. Good luck and Blessins.........
 
Tommy, you are making some headway, hang in there.

check with your doc, but the 81 mg aspirin is a good idea.
It does not affect coumadin.
The aspirin makes the blood a bit more slippery, it does not alter coagulation.
 
Thanks everyone for the good info.

Well today was my first day without the Amiodarone, i really dont think i was on it long enough to have any crazy effects on me.

The good news is, which i just remembered is, when i originally went into AFIB, my body came out of AFIB naturally, it was after i was out of AFIB that my doc put me on Amiodarone.

I was thinking i was originally on Amiodarone to treat the AFIB, so i guess if i wasnt on it before and my body came off it naturally hopefully it will never come back.

My eyes felt better today as well, i dont know if its physcological or what but they really did.

Ever since i have been on the drug i have felt ok, its just this last week my vision became blurry etc.. and i started reading up on it and decided i wanted to be off of it.

Anyways, just a quick update.
Tommy
 
Just don't forget, that stuff is going to be in your system for 6 months yet, so just because you stopped, doesn't mean it's not doing it's thing.
 
Tommy - I am on the same medications that you are except my coumadin is a lower dose and also the toprol XL is a lower dose. The Amiodarone is the same dosage. I will see my cardiologist next Thursday and he is suppose to take me off of everything and I will just take an aspirin daily. I have been on this medications for 3 months and don't really notice anything except my BP is getting really low (toprol I think). So I can't wait to see how I feel after getting off the meds. I also can't sleep throughout the night without waking up several times. I hope that gets better also.

Anyway, good luck with coming off your meds. I was also put on these due to A-FIB 2 weeks out of surgery.
 
Quick Update

Quick Update

Well its been about a week or so since i stopped the Amiodarone and I must say i feel better, my vision has improved and my heart rythm has been completely normal.

Also my INR level has been very good, a steady 3.4 for the last week or so since the Amiodarone stopping..

Ill give another update in a couple weeks :)
So far so good! :rolleyes:
 
Each person has his or her own level of tolerance to each drug. I am very reactive to Atenolol, and had significant problems with 50 mg a day. There are people on this site who take 300 mg - 400 mg of Atenolol every day with no reported problems.

What didn't affect some others with amiodorone may well affect you. I may have posted this before, but I have to agree with Mike C. that the symptoms you've been experiencing are not likely to be TIAs. Migraines, visual (atypical) migraines (which may include stigmas or "curtains" impeding vision), and short bouts of double vision are not out of line for valve patients. They tend to wane over time.

If your doctor isn't calling them TIAs, they're very probably not.

Best wishes,
 
Headaches and side effects on Amiodarone....

Headaches and side effects on Amiodarone....

My son (18) had OHS for a bicuspid AVP (bovine) and ascending repair as well an aeortic aneurysm. He is one week post surgical- the surgery was last Friday.He takes the Amiodarone 200mg 2x a day thru 5/21 then he drops down to 1x a day- he has been having wicked headaches. I don't know enough about this drug- actually nothing. He is also taking 50mg Toprol 2x daily,coumadin 2mg- one day a whole/next day a half, and an 81mg aspirin. He complains of nausea, headache, dizziness when getting up and generalized weakness. I don't know if the meds are causing the weakness or it's just the process of recovery. HELP?????
 
I think what hes experiencing is somewhat normal, i felt the same way right after surgery, as you will read on this board, it takes some time to get back to "normal", sometimes 1-6 months...
I still feel dizzy and such and its been 2 months, many say its normal though, but always check with a DOC if something is worrying you.
 
QueenVictoria said:
My son (18) had OHS for a bicuspid AVP (bovine) and ascending repair as well an aeortic aneurysm. He is one week post surgical- the surgery was last Friday.He takes the Amiodarone 200mg 2x a day thru 5/21 then he drops down to 1x a day- he has been having wicked headaches. I don't know enough about this drug- actually nothing. He is also taking 50mg Toprol 2x daily,coumadin 2mg- one day a whole/next day a half, and an 81mg aspirin. He complains of nausea, headache, dizziness when getting up and generalized weakness. I don't know if the meds are causing the weakness or it's just the process of recovery. HELP?????
Click to expand...

QV - Weakness for the first few weeks after OHS is the USUAL result. Dizzyness, nausea, headache etc are often caused by either the anesthesia (which takes a while to fully wear off) or one or more of the medications.

You would be well advised to research the Side Effects of Amiodarone. Do a SEARCH on VR.com to find considerable discussion of this drug which can have some nasty side effects if taken in large doses for too long a period. Ask a Pharmacist for a copy of the Package Insert that comes with Amiodarone and / or do a Google Search for one of the Drug information websites. Note that even the manufacturer states that it should be the antiarrhythmic drug of LAST RESORT. It is the SLEDGE HAMMER of antiarrhythmics. Surgeons / Hospitals seem to like to use it (over a relatively short term) because it ALWAYS (usually?) WORKS. Also note that it has a lengthy Half Life which means that stays in your body for MONTHS after it is discontinued.

ASK the Surgeon, Cardiologist, and PCP how it should be monitored and when it should be discontinued to be sure that no damage is being done.

'AL Capshaw'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top