i found this to be very resourceful...hope it helps, but do all the research.
http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/arrhythmias/a/amiodarone.htm

I was on amiodarone for 9yrs.It worked for many
yrs.Last yr.it stopped working.Had 1st ablation.Must have blood work done when taking
amiodarone.It can affect thing.gaby61@aol.com
off amiod.now taking multaq

"...The doctor should, by prescribing the drug, be committing him/herself to becoming a long-term partner of the patient..."

More in:

http://heartdisease.about.com/cs/arrhythmias/a/amiodarone.htm

Stan:

Just get yourself Lugol's solution and never be a "partner" to any "doctor"

I took amiodarone for about five years. It eventually stopped working for me. You are too young to take this drug for a long time. It can have a negative impact on your thyroid as well as other organs over time. At your age, I believe you should seek a permanent solution such as an ablation. I had an ablation over a year ago and am now afib and medication free. I have way more energy and feel better than I have in years. I was always tired with afib and the meds made that worse. I very highly recommend that you seek the opinion of an electrophysiologist, who can evaluate you and make recommendations.

Thats what i was thinking, the side affects I read about are terrible, my EP is the one that put me on it.

Amioderone is a poison and should be very carefully monitored.
These Cardio's dish it out with no care about long term side effects so it should be used caution .
As Jo says, Thyroid and Sight effects can damage you for life, I am very , very sceptical aboput Cardiologists , it pays to shop around and find one who is empithetic above your well being long term.


Kevin

Good points Kevin. If the government really wanted to reform health care, they should include alternative medicine and stop the pharmaceutical companies from controlling the government to the medical schools to the doctors.

I asked my doctor why there weren't any drugs with no side effects. She told me they gotta have them!!! See how blinded they are?

wow yeah thats really cute.....i guess what can you expect though...

you see this is exactly what my problem is, if I can't trust them with the meds they choose then how can and why would I trust them with a branding iron in my heart. The EP said he has about an 80% success rate with complications of about 1%. he has done about 400 of them, I am not in a large area and my insurance won't pay if I go elsewhere. This is tough.

he has about an 80% success rate with complications of about 1%...

Stan:

Do you really believe in this % staff? They also say that they have 90% success with chemotherapy for cancer. It is actually 5% by no traditional doctors.

In my operation they also said 80% success rate but after the procedure I was in constant afib! Before I was every so often but now its worse!

Tell your doctor you want to stop taking it , it is poison and I'll bet He / She would not take it ?????

thanks for your reply, I have been on it now for 10 days and no afib, I seen the doc yesturday and he said I need to be on it at least 3 months, I hate taking it after reading about the side affects, I am also on 50mg of metoprol 5mg of lisinaprol, he said I have to have them all. One problem is if I go out of town like to Mayo or somewhere, not only will my insurance not cover me but if something goes wrong down the road they aren't going to be to excited about taking care of me, they might say, " why don't you go where you went before" and I might need them. I am in a smaller market here(western Illinois) and I don't feel real comfortable having ablation done here, though he said afib is real common and he treats it all the time.

Be sure to ask your local doc what his success rate has been. My local doc told me his success rate was 50%. The doc that did my ablation in Seattle told me his success rate was 74%. Big difference!!! Do you live near a teaching hospital? They usually have better success rates and your insurance might cover it. They also almost always have the latest and best equipment.