CircusSquirrel - this is a response to comments made on another post. I am starting a new thread in order not to hijack Niki's thread.

It isn't my cardiologist that makes me cry - it is ALL doctors. I am a cry baby - I always have been and I can't stop it. I cry when I get frustrated. I am so frustrated over all of this stuff all I have to do is talk about it and I cry. I wish I could turn off the tears, but I just can't do it. I actually was taking xanax before my appointments and it was really helping, but now I am scared to take xanax with my heart rate this low. Does it lower your heart rate even more when you take xanax? Up until this I was pretty much taking it every day - just half of a .5mg pill. Now, like I said, I'm afraid to take it because I don't want my heart rate going any lower.

I have tried lowering my beta blocker. If I take a quarter of it, I still get the racing heart (100+) unless I am laying down. If I lay down it still gets into the 60s. When I got up this morning I only took 1/4 of my bb and it didn't help. So I took another 1/4 and now here I sit at barely 50bpm. I went in to see my cardio two weeks ago when this first started happening. He told me to only take half of the pill and everything was fine for two weeks. Now my heart rate is dropping too low on just half. The whole pill is only 5mg to begin with!

I have been taking this beta blocker since February. I was having no problems up until now. I actually felt pretty good for a few months. I wasn't even checking my pulse all that often anymore. Two weeks ago I went to half dose. I just don't understand why this would change so suddenly like this. I also don't understand how I was taking 5mg for 5 months and I was fine. Then my heart rate drops real low so I cut them in half and take 2.5mg for two weeks - feeling ok. Now the 2.5mg is making my heart rate too low, but 1.25mg does nothing and I still get tachy any time I move around. I don't know which is the lesser of the two evils - tachy or brady.

The reason I don't want to call the cardiologist is because he will just tell me to stop checking my pulse and my heart rate in the 40s is OK for me. I will probably start crying the second I start talking to him and I'm sure he thinks I am a total nut!!! Obviously my heart rate in the 40s is NOT OK for me. If it were, I wouldn't feel dizzy all the time. My arms even feel very heavy. Or if he does tell me to take only 1/4 of the pill, then I have to deal with the tachycardia most of the day. I just don't know what to do other than to sit here and cry. This is consuming me right now!!!

If anyone else has any comments about this beta blocker and the effect it seems to be having on my heart rate, please share them with me. I am really at my wits end right now about this. Thanks!

Xanax, in my personal opinion and experience, will have no effect on your heart rate. If someone is scared out of their minds and their heart rates are going up because of that, they will become calmer and their heart rates will go down. But in our cases, our heart seem to race "just because." I am taking a large dose of Xanax lately with my heart rate in the 40-50 range and it doesn't lower my heart rate at all. I would really encourage you to take the Xanax, it will make you feel better and perhaps help get you calm enough to work out your situation. Here's my take on your situation: The cardiologist is basically saying that your heart rate being in the 40s isn't a problem because it is not at all dangerous. He's not necessarily thinking about the side effects you're experiencing, as long as they aren't dangerous. I don't know if you've taken your bloop pressure or not, but it could be that the medication is making your blood pressure low and that's why you're dizzy, not the slow heart rate. The slow heart rate tends to make people more tired than dizzy. My cardio told me that my tachycardia was just normal sinus tachycardia and wouldn't harm me, and if I didn't have symptoms he wouldn't suggest a beta-blocker at all. He even told me if I didn't like the way it made me feel, just call him and I could go off it. But being tachy all the time is very uncomfortable, like you said. When I get the tachycardia early in the morning, I feel wiped out just doing small chores like dishes and things. I sometimes feel as if I'm exercising by just standing up! The beta-blocker pretty much eliminates that. BUT, as we've talked about before, some days my heart just wants to beat so slowly that I feel tired and dizzy. I know a woman with anxiety who is on beta-blockers for "skippy" heartbeats, and she has to (with her dr's consent) take varying doses of her medication. Like us, she'll get too dizzy or she'll get too tachy. I think of all the millions of people on beta-blockers and the fact that sooo many of them MUST go through this and that makes me feel better. I think most of them don't worry as much as we do, though. Plus, even very old people use these medications, and beta-blockers can prevent second heart attacks and things like that, so I think overall, they're good for you.
As far as just having to change the dosage, I tell you, I had to change my dosage after losing a few pounds, I had to change my medication after starting an exercise program, I've been on beta-blockers for a total of about 6 or 7 years and my dosage has changed quite a few times! When I used to run 10 miles per week I had to stop the beta-blockers totally because they would nearly make me pass out, but I'd still have episodes of tachycardia sometimes. I cut back on the running and I had to get back on the betas. So many things can contribute to the need to adjust these medications, so I don't think it's anything to worry about that you've had to change dosage. You are going to have to decide whether you can put up with the tachy feelings or the brady feelings, it seems. Or, you can go in and ask your cardiologist to try you on a different beta-blocker. For me, the side effects from one to the other were very different. Is there anyone that could go to the doc with you, that really helps me sometimes? If your current cardio is being really dismissive, go to another, or even to your primary and explain the situation. I really do think that if you take your Xanax you will feel MUCH better about this whole thing, though. You won't fret over every little sensation, you'll realize that even though a sensation is uncomfortable, it isn't dangerous, that sort of thing. Don't feel bad about crying, we all have different ways of expressing our fear. I fidget like crazy and I fear I must look like a madwoman sometimes! Perhaps someone else on here takes beta-blockers, too.

I am on Beta Blockers too. Have been on them for wow...15 years. Mostly for techycardia, but through the years for Blood pressure too. It sucks. I never know when my heart is going to start racing and then another trip to the ER I go for them to inject me with adenosene, take blood, do EKG and then home 2 hours later. Then I get the $500 hospital bill. I just started having them again this year with going 5 years with none. I also have had panic attacks and the more I read, the more it sounds like they are related.
It sucks though.. been on blood pressure medicine since I was 20 years old and at the time was a college majorette and physically active.
But... another day, another xanax.

Lyl

CircusSquirrel - thanks for the post. You did help me to feel a little better about this. It stinks that you have to go through this also, but at least I'm not alone. It sounds like you handle it much better than I do...maybe in time I will too. I'm still scared to take the xanax, but I may try one a little later since I just took the bb this morning. I actually cut the pill in half and then took a little bit off the half. So I guess I'm taking about a third of it. I will just have to see what works for me. Right now I feel OK, except for all of the anxiety over this. Thanks again for helping me to calm down about this.

Lylone - do you ever have problems with your heart rate going to low? Do you have a reason for your tachycardia, or are you like us and it just races for no reason? I'm assuming you take a beta blocker and xanax. Any effect on your heart rate?