Can my mom stop Amiodarone now that she has a pacemaker?

Amiodarone

by Gemita - 2024-10-07 05:03:27

Destrider, I am so sorry to hear your mother has had a heart attack and developed AFib.  Your Bio doesn’t show whether your Mother has a defibrillator or what type of pacemaker she has.  It would be useful to know this and when she had the heart attack?   After a heart attack it will be important to stabilise her.

Unfortunately AFib is not an arrhythmia that can be easily stopped with a pacemaker or medication alone and it so depends on what treatments she has had to date for her AFib other than the pacemaker and a medication like Amiodarone.  Amiodarone is one of the most effective meds out there to treat an arrhythmia.  My elderly mother was given it too.  However as we know it carries a high risk of adverse effects, so I would want to come off it as quickly as possible, if your mother can be stabilised with other treatments, less prone to come with serious side effects.

Of course you will know it is dangerous to stop a medication quickly or without the supervision of your mother’s cardiologist.  You could try asking the following questions:

How long will she need to remain on Amiodarone to stabilise her AF and heart condition, or is there another medication that she could try, less dangerous, like a rate control beta blocker, to calm her AFib?

If they continue to see AFib at high heart rates, this could make her heart condition following a heart attack worse, so they usually need to stabilise her quickly to give her the best chance of a safe recovery.  Once her cardiologist has stabilised her condition, he will be in a much better position to answer all your questions.

Let us hope your Mother will be helped with the pacemaker.  The pacemaker allows doctors to give higher doses of a medication safely because they are able to set the pacemaker to pace her at a steady, higher heart rate,  High dose medication to stop a fast arrhythmia like AFib, could lower heart rates to dangerously low levels without a pacemaker to protect her.  This is one of the reasons why I have a pacemaker.  Good luck to you both

Medication

by piglet22 - 2024-10-07 06:02:11

I would echo Gemita's comments about medication.

Before your mother had her pacemaker, she might not have been able to take some medication or not tolerate a higher dose.

This is particularly the case with classes of drugs like beta blockers and bradycardia resulting from heart blocks.

I remember a consultant telling my GP that I could take a higher dose of Atenolol that would benefit me now that I had the protection of the pacemaker.

As it turned out, another complication arose that was only suppressed by being able to change from Atenolol to Bisoprolol at a high dose.

I can't add anything to Gemitas advice on Amiodarone.

Other antiarrhythmics

by Rch - 2024-10-07 15:52:19

Without knowing much about your mother's medical history or other medications she is on, it is hard to give an opinion. There are alternate antiarrhythmics with less side effects than Amiodarone. Your Cardiologist must have had a good reason to use Ami. Nonetheless you could ask him if you could change to a different drug. He might review the pacemaker data and recommend accordingly. My other question is , is she on both antiplatelets like Aspirin and antithromotics like Apixaban etc. If so, she would need a closer observation. Hope your mother will do well with her recent setback.

Thank You

by DeStrider - 2024-10-07 21:27:34

Thank you for the informative comments!  My mother's heart attack was last March 2024.  I will follow up with her and find out what other medications she is taking.  I know she is taking Jardiance, Telmisartan, Metformin and several other drugs.  The doctor has weaned her from 400 Amiadarone down to 100.  The cardio therapy nurse told my mother she should stop taking it altogether.  My mother's cardiologist is booked until mid-November and will then see her and we'll see if we can get off the amiodarone faster.  Does it make sense to have another cardiologist evaluate her sooner?