The Monday Cardiologist Visit

I will write more details when I have time. The doctor was personable and took the time to help me understand my issue. In fact, he drew me a picture and explained the issue very clearly. I will pass on all I learned in a future post soon (before I forget everything he said).

I am on Flecainide (100 mg twice daily) and Nadolol (20 mg once daily). The first is a sodium channel blocker and the second is a beta blocker. He also took me off the Warfarin because he was concerned that the side affects (excessive bleeding and/or internal bleeding) were worse than the benefits. He did not think I was at a point that I needed to be on that particular regimen and suggested 80 mg of aspirin daily instead. I started the drugs on Tuesday morning. The side effects have thus far been minimal. Some drowsiness and dizziness, but nothing too bad. I did have a neat side effect this morning. As I sat down, I noticed as my arms moved up and down in my peripheral vision, that they left kind of blurring trail. The only thing that is similar is when you set up your mouse pointer to have a trail as you move it. That is what it looked like when I "flapped" my arms up and down. The effect did not last very long, but it was kind of cool.

I did run today to try out the heart rate. I was able to get up to 137 bpm when normally I should have been at nearly 160. My max heart rate while running all out is in the mid 170's. So now my max will probably be near 150 bpm. That really sucks. I am hoping that as my body adapts to the medication, my heart rate will go up some. Right now staying on this drug regimen will impede any goals I have for running.

I go back to the doctor at the end of the month to see how things go. This past month, I have had few episodes of flutter so it may be a while before I can readily determine whether or not the drugs are being effective. Once I type up the discussion the doc and I had, you will really understand this issue much better. It is quite interesting and beats anything I have found on the net to date.

It is late and I have been busy at work and traveling, so I am heading to bed. I will get the info up quickly for anyone that is interested in reading more about it. I hope to do some more running to see how this drug really affects my performance. I am not expecting miracles, but....