Ruth's Guestbook

Thanks for both your info. to jeff yes mike did have a small brain hemorrage too which left him confused for around 20 hours and resolved completely. He had the cordarone IV also they had to used the paddles to convert back to normal rythm, Is now home and doing better,hes on amiodorone 8oomg twice a day, hope for not too long.

hi ruth, congrats on his surgery,thats most of the battle. i had aortic surgery last year and i had problems with coumadin too. fell free to email me with any questions. jeffstoveken@yahoo.com i actually had a brain hemorrage.

My surgeon said that 40% of heart valve surgery patients suffer from atrial fibrillation after surgery. I think Cordarone is a brand name for amiodorone, which I am taking after my surgery, and I think that is pretty standard. I was on an IV drip of it the last 2 days in the hospital, then was on 800mg a day orally at home for the first 2 weeks. Then saw my cardiologist and he lowered the dose to 200mg a day and said come back in a month when we will likely stop the drug and see if the atrial fib is gone for good. You can look up either drug name on Google. The side effects they list are pretty bad, but I think they are more likely if you are on the drug long term, which some people are. Suggest you ask the doctor about it after you look at the web info, because the web info is kind of scary. Jim Patrick - Tucson