It’s been about three weeks since I stopped taking amiodarone. That drug is supposed to regulate your heartbeat but has a ton of bad side effects. More common are nausea, vomiting, insomnia, numbness in the hands and feet, plus a lot more. Since I thought I was experiencing many of those symptoms, I got my cardiologist to stop the medication. However, the “half-life” of the drug is very long, from weeks to months after you stop taking it. Wikipedia has the half-life at 58 days which is ~2 months.
Since all my weird symptoms started about two weeks after discharge, which is about the time it takes for amiodarone to kick in, I was hoping that stopping the medication will ease the symptoms. After three weeks, I’m eating and sleeping better but can’t tell if that’s part of the regular recovery or the residual drug effects wearing off. My main issue with numbness in my feet have not subsided. I have peripheral nephropathy but don’t remember the numbness being that bad. I read somewhere that if your feet are cold, it makes the numbness worse so I been wrapping my feet with electric blankets. I did get some fluffy slippers from Amazon so hopefully that will help.
Life with chronic diseases 
One thought on “Amiodarone, Part II”