When Will Palpitations End!!!

BH2004 · 02-17-2005, 09:08 PM

I have posted on this board several times speaking of my experiences with Ultracet and heart palpitations. As an update, I am still having alot of palpitations. Alot being one every 20 seconds are so. I have seen a Cardiologist, Internal Medicine doctor, Neurologist, addictions counselor, and a Christmas Eve ER visit. Anyway, I finally satrted to take a beta-blocker which helps a little bit but I am still having the palpitations. I am also having extreme rushes of anxiety. It feels like adrenaline rushes. This whole journey began when I started taking Ultracet for back pain. I took it for six weeks. I liked the euphoric effect it gave me. I did noticied side effects from it. These included itchiness, flushing in the face, and problems urinating. After like four weeks of taking it I went from 4 pills a day to 6. I did this for a week then I decide to go back to 4 a day. When I did this I started to get the heart palpitations. When I started to get the heart palpitations I freaked and stopped taking the Ultracet all together. I tried to call the doctor who prescribed the Ultracet but he would not speak to me about it because it was Christmas Eve. Anyway, I went through extreme sypmtoms that first week. I was so restless I could not sit down even for a second. I had night and day sweats, and a wierd metal taste in my mouth. I had extreme problems sleeping. All this time I had heart palpitations. At this time, I am two months out since I quit Ultracet and I am still having palpitations and adrenaline rushes. The only test I am waiting to come back is a urine test to test my adrenaline levels. I know all of this is probably withdrawal but the doctors insist it is not. So that makes me worry that something else is wrong with me. I am just so discouraged. I really went into this thing thinking I could outlast it but it is not going away. I really feel like something in my body has been permantely damaged and my body will not return to normal. If anyone has experience heart palpitations for a extended peroid of time please let me know. Since I constantly have them it is steadily bringing me down.

valleygurl · 02-17-2005, 09:30 PM

BH2004, Hi there, i guess i am in agreeance with your dr about this not being wd's seeing you have been off these pills for quite sometime. All the symptoms you described to begin with definately sound like wd's. Seems from your post all the symptoms are gone now except the heart palpitations. You stated that you had been to a Cardiologist and everything checked out just fine, so that is good news. I DO know what palpitations are like as i suffer from them to, i too was checked over and had all the heart tests done that also all came back normal. It can be normal for some people to have the palpitations basically for no apparent reason. I was put on a low dose of blood pressure medication that has been known to help control palpitations. It worked a little but i still have them. Do you have your stress and anxiety under control? Because i do know that they are generally a number one contributor to heart palpitations. What meds are you on? You may very well need a change in meds or even a new one added that will help. Let me know, i will try and help you the best that i can.

ValleyGurl

bewildered42 · 02-18-2005, 11:43 AM

I know I've responded to you about this before...I'm sorry you are still at it with these darn things.

I reallyl think you should consider the possibility that it is the palpitations themselves that are causing more palpitations. In other words, you are so focused(and I was too when I went through it) on the misery of the palpitations and what they might mean that you are in a constant state of anxiety..sometimes just a low lying anxiety and sometimes it comes to the forefront and becomes a bad anxiety. This creates a constant level of adrenaline in your system which is causing more palpitations.

I'd like to recommend to you a book called Hope and Help for your Nerves. It's by Claire Weekes. She has saved many many people for the anxiety cycle(including palpitations) by explaining it in down to earth sometimes pretty funny terms, and then she teaches you how to break out of it. By applying her advice to my palpitation problem many years ago, I was able to learn to live with them. And now I hardly get them. And when I do I just don't care! The cardiologist told me I'm fine and I have a recheck every 5 yrs. The Claire Weekes books are great!

For anyone else reading this, her books also teach you how to break out of anxiety/panic attack cycles. I went through a really bad time after my first child was born 14 y rs, ago ..and if it weren't for her books I think I'd to this day be having panic issues. I don't though...when the symptoms of any of this stuff come up I use what i learned and it always passes.

BW

jbot · 02-18-2005, 10:27 PM

Hi BH i would agree with BW that it may well be anxiety and panic attacks. the more they come on the more you worry. I have had heart palpitations since I was 15 and still have them but I have learned to control them.After all the tests for my heart and blood work the dr gave me xanax with the promise it would only be taken in extreme attacks. Thank goodness this has worked for me for over 20 yrs. I do not take even 1 xanax a month but just to know I have something to calm the fear helps so much. My Gp knows that its anxiety and he trust me with the xanax. Now if its severe enough to have to take 3 or 4 a day i`d say don`t start taking them at all because they are addicting. On the subject of ultram me and my ortho dr just had words about if it was addiciting. He was giving them to me all the time and i tried taking them as prescribed but they made me hold fluid and i did feel weired so I stop taking them and that was after taking them for only 4 or 5 days. When I mentioned to him they wasn`t helping the pain and it wasn`t any use to take something that might be addicting he got all bent out of shape. I proberly won`t go back to him again and I had been going for 4 years. I hate these know it all about medicine dr`s. I tell them fast I lived with my body for 62 yrs and no amount of school they go to will tell them what it can and can`t take concerning medicines. Needless to say I don`t keep a dr very long. But anyway i`d try getting the book and reading it. I might look for it also. I just know anxiety makes your feel like something is wrong with you and when the test come back and its nothing then you worry what else it can be and this can go on for years,I finaly excepted the fact i`m having panic attacks and don`t fight them anymore.Hope this has helped and it may have been the Ultram that started them but they wouldn`t continue this long from the meds. Take a deep breath and smile when you feel one come on and say i know what you are now so go away. Kinna like mind over matter,lol. Keep us posted.

bewildered42 · 02-19-2005, 09:22 AM

Hi Again!

I keep those Claire Weekes books under my bed and if I am having a particularly anxious time i pull them out for a refresher course. Once you master her technique, and it is very simple to do, you are set for life. I kid you not. When I get symptoms of anxiety including palpitations, I can think "I know what that is and I know what to do". No worries involved. Now, if I could just get my ultram use under control. I'm giving myself fits over it and worrying about seizures all the time. I'll start a new thread on that.

BW