Urgent: Post ablation PACs

I’m in the hospital now. Had an ablation yesterday & having some complications including runs of PACs plus my normal low resting HR In The 40s is now in mid to hi 60s. Which maybe that’s not an issue.

Are these issues normal?
The doc wanted to put me multaq (dronedarone) to control the PACs which I guess is a drug part of the amiodarone family?? I remember reading in Hans book never to take that.

Any thoughts on what I should be taking instead? I have never taken any drugs except dlitiazem on demand during an episode.

Any insights are much appreciated - ASAP. Thx

PACs are to be expected, and your heart rate is perfectly normal.

Multaq is related to amiodarone but that's like saying tigers are related to house cats. Multaq is nothing at all like amiodarone. It's quite safe and has very few side effects. It's the mildest drug with the least amount of side effects you can be offered. I wouldn't hesitate to take it if I were you (I have taken it). When Hans wrote that about amiodarone Multaq didn't even exist and his comments simply don't apply to Multaq at all.

My advice would be relax - you just had a heart bbq and needs some time to settle down. I wouldn't worry about Multaq - Dr N likes it and I took but it didn't work early on - neither did flec until I got an ECV 10 weeks later. I am in NSR at 60 BPM for a week now and just battled through pneumonia and an ER visit to a hospital filled with covid. Just relax and take it easy, mentally, emotionally and physically. Congrats on making it to the other side and sounds like quite well compared to my experience.

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Carey
PACs are to be expected, and your heart rate is perfectly normal.

Multaq is related to amiodarone but that's like saying tigers are related to house cats. Multaq is nothing at all like amiodarone. It's quite safe and has very few side effects. It's the mildest drug with the least amount of side effects you can be offered. I wouldn't hesitate to take it if I were you (I have taken it). When Hans wrote that about amiodarone Multaq didn't even exist and his comments simply don't apply to Multaq at all.

Thank you so much Carey! I feel better after hearing that from you. And I am taking the multaq & also Eloquis now. Had an issue with bleeding out of the groin at the Cather site 6 hours after procedure and BP dropped very low, but it seems to have clotted and better now. Maybe due to heparin I was on during procedure as I’ve never been on a blood thinner. They did a TEE before procedure, I went into Afib and atrial flutter on the table so she ablated those areas but had to cardiovert me to get out of AF so more than I bargained for but I was asleep during all of that. A little sore in the chest/esophagus area but I guess that’s normal. Hoping the rest of my recovery goes smoothly with no other complications and I can get thru the blanking period smoothly. Thx again!

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NotLyingAboutMyAfib
My advice would be relax - you just had a heart bbq and needs some time to settle down. I wouldn't worry about Multaq - Dr N likes it and I took but it didn't work early on - neither did flec until I got an ECV 10 weeks later. I am in NSR at 60 BPM for a week now and just battled through pneumonia and an ER visit to a hospital filled with covid. Just relax and take it easy, mentally, emotionally and physically. Congrats on making it to the other side and sounds like quite well compared to my experience.

Thank you NLAMAF! I think I need to take your sound advice and just relax. I’ve been one big ball of stress over this. I’m so happy to hear your in NSR for a week now. Sounds like you’ve had a rough go of it but glad you’re past those complications. Wishing you a successful recovery and NSR from here on out!

I took multaq after both my ablations during the blanking period (healing) . As Carey said, it is safer than the other drugs. You should expect a few runs if ever- maybe not (I didn’t after first but had one short run the second), af during the healing period. It’s all normal. As NLAMA says, you just had your heart bbq. Your heart is healing now.

5-6 weeks after both of my ablations I developed nonstop PVCs. I stopped multaq and started tenormin and they stopped cold turkey. Just a FYI if that happens.

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susan.d
I took multaq after both my ablations during the blanking period (healing) . As Carey said, it is safer than the other drugs. You should expect a few runs if ever- maybe not (I didn’t after first but had one short run the second), af during the healing period. It’s all normal. As NLAMA says, you just had your heart bbq. Your heart is healing now.

5-6 weeks after both of my ablations I developed nonstop PVCs. I stopped multaq and started tenormin and they stopped cold turkey. Just a FYI if that happens.

Thx Susan! Appreciate the feedback on what you took and what you experienced!

Tenormin ( Atenolol ) has a similar molecular structure to Toprol XL and/or Lopressor (Metoprolol)

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NotLyingAboutMyAfib
Tenormin ( Atenolol ) has a similar molecular structure to Toprol XL and/or Lopressor (Metoprolol)

True true and true. But “similar” is not exactly the “same”. And the difference could make a drug successful or not. It’s not at all like comparing coke to Pepsi-but they taste similar but must tweak their ingredients for legal reasons. Rx are different.

Rx Examples—However some people (like me) don’t do well with the generic atenolol (doesn’t do a thing for me and my hr is higher) and I do feel the difference with the brand. However Teva pharmaceuticals sells atenolol that is actually stronger 25mg vs 25mg of brand. I don’t know why. I have an overseas rx ready when I need to quickly lower my hr. So it’s day and night different.

Same with Prilosec Rx (no longer available in the usa) vs Prilosec over the counter or generic. My husband, retired pharmacist, told me they tweak the legal knockoffs (generics/over the counter) ingredients to make it similar. Over the counter or generic does nothing for me while Teva pharmaceuticals generic works.

Tenormin stops my PVCs cold turkey. But that’s me. I’m lucky. I dodged a pvc ablation in April when having 24/7 PVCs and starting Tenormin which stopped chronic PVCs in its tracks. I consider myself lucky and I hope my luck continues.

It’s not exactly the same and definitely not totally similar-/and if one is super sensitive, they have to experiment with what actually works for them.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/19/2020 08:21PM by susan.d.

Glad your doing well. Like others have said everything your experiencing is normal. And I would not be concerned about the multag. Calming your heart during the healing process is not a bad thing.