General Medical Question - Non Urgent - Come on, really? //heart related//

ThirdShadow · 06-02-2010, 05:47 AM

I've had ideopathic sinus tachycardia since 2003, no big deal. Introduction to beta blockers, they work fine.

Got pregnant in 2006, was taken off the beta blockers as they arent safe during pregnancy and was pretty much put on bedrest the whole time as the tachycardia is really bad (i can move and jump up to about 200bpm).

Had my beautiful baby girl via emergency c-section, my heart stopped twice, restarted everything, was put back on beta blockers, all is well and good.

(you are now entering hell)

When she was 2 weeks old, I went nuts. I've been SHing for 10 years, not at all during pregnancy, I wont go into details but it was bad.

So I start seeing a psych and he decides that I was bipolar, so for about three years I was on meds, seems like everytime I saw him I was put on something new and at higher doses.

By september of 2009, I had enough, I stopped everything, I was up to 15 different meds at this point, so i was taking pills all day, who wants that? sleeping pills had stopped working months before this, but i've never slept well... but what does this have to do with my heart?

My heart meds have since stopped working.

My life span, if not fixed, is now 3-5 years. I've been doing test after test since then, put on everything on the face of earth that you could think of to stop the heart problems. Nothing is working.

So, I called my cardiologist team and told them whats been going on lately, they want to do a major increase in one of the beta blockers.

why do I see a problem with this? A few things.
- it is a huge increase (50 up to 150mg of lopressor) and with depression or past depression and other such issues of that relation, you have increased risk of making depression much much worse, and i stand witness to that because when I was switched from atenolol to inderal

The following content has been hidden - Reason : triggering

*facepalm* sorry, this is just really long and hard to explain but I need some advice on how to approach this.

I've been in the hospital many times for this, and they know that my meds arent working as they have stood next to me while on monitors, my HR would drop about 10bpm but shoot back up within 10 minutes.

So what does my cardio team decide to do? Put me on an event montior for a month ( I got it monday morning) ((since monday, i've been to the ER three times)). They put me on this monitor because on December 29th, I was on a 24hr monitor and started to become arrythmic, which, i've never had before. So they need to watch this, I know that, but the meds arent working...

Questions:
-What if I take the higher dose and it does start to work, but not just a little, but hardcore? Would you take that risk? (I was on enough sleeping pills to kill 2 full grown elephants at one point, and was still wide awake, what if those had started to work one day? Where would I be?)

-What if I take it and get major depression and decide ... well, you already know what happened the last time, what if that gets worse? (Right now, bipolar is OFF my chart, and just have depression)

-My monitor has been beeping at me so much this week I've barely slept, and tried to sleep last night, was out for about two hours after much chest pain and being uncomfortable, passed out for about 2 hours, woke up, and my heart monitor was ripped from my chest and across the room behind the door, and my pillows were all on the other side of the room against my daughters bed... just kind of a funny story... but its just that annoying.

- I have an allergy to the chest stickies, they eat my skin, literally. I have to change them every day and a layer of skin comes off with them. So, I called and had them send the infant stickies, which are supposed to be better for your skin. They arent. They burn and make my skin bubble and I'm at a complete loss, so any thoughts on what to do with that at all would be great because they dont know what to do, and since its the weekend, its not going to matter much who i call, I wont get any change.

I'm sure there are more questions that I have, maybe some that you have, but I dont want to be at 150mg twice daily, plus being on .25mg of digoxin, and have everything want to work again, that scares me to no end, as i have a family.

Thank you for listening *sigh*

Jetforce · 06-02-2010, 01:35 PM

Well firstly to answer ur questions

1/ If ur talking about sleeping meds in ur first question, benzodiapazines, the group of medications that assist in sleeping and anxiety, is known to most ppl that you might become tolerant on it. What does that mean? That means, that your current dose will not give you the same effects of sleeping for example and you will need to take a higher dose to achieve the same effects. Thus, after you taken a higher dose of that medication, you become tolerant to that require a higher dose, like a cycle. Anyway, you should see your doctor about sleeping meds and possible withdrawal of them? There are other types of sedative medications which might assist in sleeping which are not in the category of benzodiapazines. But atm, keep taking the prescribe dose of ur sleeping meds.

2/ Keep taking your meds as prescribe by your doctor. I've done this before and it is not a wise move, but stopping anti-depressant medication suddenly will lead you to crash badly, in terms of mood and symptoms of depression. If you feel like that the medications is not working as you think it will, see your doc about it and talk about other options which might assist you. Another possible factor which could ask about is the idea of postnatal depression? It is common in people who have had bubs and this might be related to your situation, but it also maybe other factors too. Like i said again, see ur doc about it and a second opinion if u wish?

3/ I'm not sure what type of heart monitor you are hooked up too, either maybe a 3 or 5 lead ECG, anyway, if you are on either one of those, for the arm or limb leads, you could rotate the position and maybe apply some sort of cream which might help ease the burning sensation. Can't really think of any ideas there...?

Anyway, hope that answer some of ur questions....
fingers crossed that ur situation improves
take care...hope that helped a bit

ThirdShadow · 06-02-2010, 03:47 PM

actually think I may be confused you more then anything. I apologize.

I no longer take any type of sleeping med. Havent since september. We tried everything, and no matter what the dose, first time or not, it wouldnt work and i'd still be wide awake. They've done sleep studies and still cant figure this out. So I gave up, but possiblly, I was just on so much at once (we're actually looking into suing the doctor, as he has caused a lot of damage)

And I wasnt talking about stopping my anti depressant. At all, I know better. I'm worried about the increase in the beta blockers and how thats going to effect me, as they are no longer working, we have since been through everything and the only thing to do, is increase but the last time we did that, which was in november, I got so depressed that even on anti depressants and an increase in them at the same time, I still cut my wrists, again, an area that i've never touched and never planned to, but something just set me off...

Hope that explains something more....

Its just complicated and its the weekend and I think that I've exhausted everything thus far then calling the oncall people at the office.

But, the monitor, is a two lead, both on the chest, I move them around, but i'm so sensitive to the stickies, even 10 minutes in any spot is torture, it just burns that bad. Nobody is sure what to do, but last night, i didnt wear it, still couldnt sleep because I felt so aweful, but! atleast I was comfortable.

Animad · 06-02-2010, 03:53 PM

Right, as you have a team of doctors regarding this problem and the rules state that if you're under doctors support for something we cannot give you advice on it, for several reasons, then there is nothing we can say. For that reason I am now going to lock this thread.

You need to speak to your own doctors about all of these things, make sure you're totally certain before you leave and then they can help. We're not in any position to be able to help you right now and if we say anything which is against what your doctor says or give you any wrong advice then it could be a huge problem. They know your case a LOT better than we do and they're more qualified to answer your questions than ourselves so you need to discuss it with them.

If you want to discuss this decision further then feel free to PM me,
KimA