flecainide

I've only been taking flecainide for two weeks, but yesterday I noticed that my right foot and ankle were noticeably swollen. Has anyone else had this problem with flecainide? I'm waiting on a call to my EP doctor, but haven't taken my morning dose yet.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Swollen feet and lower extremities sounds like heart failure. You haven't been diagnosed with that, have you? Don't mean to scare, just need more info.

After 3 ablations, and 4 cardioversions I had a Pacemaker a few weeks ago and just started on the flecainide. I've previously tried multaq, amiodarone and had side effects to those. EP doctor thinks av node is next. Haven't been diagnosed with heart failure, but have had swollen ankles with the other medication. Not sure what's next.

Just so you're aware, an AV node ablation is a "nuclear option" and makes you dependent on a pacemaker forever. What were you prior ablations? RF or cryo? Left aftrial for AF, right atrial for fluttler, both? Surprised to see you've gone from amiodarone down to flecainide. That's sort of going backwards. We don't like amiodarone, for sure, but it belongs to a more powerful class of antiarrythmics than does flecainide which is more of a drug of first resort rather than last.

Not sure about the swelling issues with either medication. I've never had either one. I was on propafenone and experienced no swelling but did feel like sometimes there were "worms" crawling under my skin in my legs. Fortunately I wasn't on it for very long. I'm sure others will reply who have had experiences with those other medications.

Is flecainide your only medication? Swollen ankles is listed as a rare side effect of flecainide, but I've never heard anyone say they experienced it. Other drugs like some calcium channel blockers very commonly do cause it though. Amlodipine (Norvasc) gave me ridiculously swollen ankles.

Prior ablations? I was in afib for a while then it would change to flutter, but it was constant - I would never go back to NSR unless I had a cardioversion. No, I won't do an av node unless I really have to.

Have been taking flecainide for years, and have never experienced that.

Although it sure makes me feel drugged and dopey. Wake up with a drug hangover in the morning.

But better than afib!

I've been taking 50mg Flec 2x/day for a few months now and have no side effects i noticed.

The only side effects from flecainide I had were rythym related. I never had any swelling.

Thanks for sharing your experience with flecainide. I will stick with it and explore other options that may cause the swelling.

Check this report on potential side effects from Mayo Clinic.

[www.mayoclinic.org]

sounds like it can cause just about any complaint under the sun

Relevant advise - [www.youtube.com]

Quote
Joe
sounds like it can cause just about any complaint under the sun

Yeah, that's the trouble with side effect reporting. The FDA (and other countries' agencies) generally say every side effect reported has to be made public. So the result is every single person who ever took the drug and had any sort of complaint about it gets listed even if the reason they had that symptom actually had nothing to do with the drug. (Consequently, nausea, headache, etc are listed as side effects of every drug ever known.)

The key is to look at how they're categorized as common, uncommon, or rare. Forget rare and doubt uncommon.

I know that flecainide sounds like a scary drug, but I have taken it since 2011 at 50 mg 2x per day and then for 2 more years at 100 mg 2x per day. I can't attribute any specific side effects to taking it. Actually in my case it has been very helpful.