I am having problems with tachycardia giving me dizziness, shortness of breath ,palpitations, nausea, chest pain and tightness and feeling faint!. They are worse on exercise and improve with rest.
I do have a seven year history with chest pain, had a lot of the tests to rule out the nasties and thank goodness all was clear!. As a result I've been diagnosed with pericarditis. I have had tachycardia with it before but it's been symptomless until now.
My steroids have been increased to 8 mg daily for a week from 7 mg as usually extra steroid resolves the pain and I take colchicine three times a day when get an attack like this and they too usually resolve it. I've also been put on the beta blocker Bisoprolol to slow the heart rate down which did appear to work but I'm wondering now as I'm particularly troubled by the dizziness and fainting feelings that it's become less effective or is it enough? Been on it a month at the lowest dose.
I'd be really interested in your advice and experiences and how your being treated as I'm struggling with it!.
Hope you are enjoying the spring sunshine as much as you can!. Many thanks for reading
MistyX
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misty14
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Hi misty, I don’t know what dose of beta blocker you are taking but i i started on them I started on a low dose and inceased gradually to 10 mg . After 8 weeks i lowered it to 7.5 mg which suits me now . Occasionally i need to take an extra 2.5 if I feel my heart racing. If you have worries do speak to your doctor as it can take a while to get the right dose I think . I hope you are able to get it sorted as you have had quite a time with cardiac problems. Best wishes 💐💐
Thank you for your lovely and very helpful reply. I'm taking the lowest dose of Bisoprolol 1.25 mg and did wonder whether it needed to increase. That was good you could increase it and then bring it down when better. I'm in for a stressful week as mum goes into hospital on Thursday for her hip replacement op so will probably have to speak to my GP about it!. Have you had your back operation yet?. Do hope it helps you. Take careX
It is a very stressful time , my mum, who has passed now had two hips replaced , its a great operation i hope it will give your mum relief. No word yet about op was to have been before Easter but doesn’t look like it now ☹️. Best wishes to you and your mum xx
Thank you weathervane for your lovely good wishes. I'm sorry about the delays for your op. It's so tough waiting in pain. It's been the weather that has kept delaying these op's!. Mum is having hers because there suddenly doing a blitz at our local hospital as they fell behind! She's been told it's fab for getting rid of the pain!. That's so liberating!. I hope you get yours soon. Keep us postedX
I certainly will weathervane. I will ask my GP this week about the Bisoprolol going up!. Thanks so much and fingers tightly crossed for you getting your op soon. All the best for a good outcome and as good an Easter as possible. Xx
Sorry to hear you are having a rough time. You know I've been exactly where you are.
I can't give you medical advice because thats not allowed but if you were me I would think that 1.25mg bisoprolol is too low. I take 1.25mg for my POTS but often have to pop an extra pill to reduce a tachy episode.
The chest pain, shortness of breath and dizziness is likely due to your tachycardia. What sort of rate are you going?? Have you had enough fluid too? Also increasing pred can give you bouts of tachycardia, although I'd say that with a 1mg dose increase its unlikely.
Does the chest pain feel like pericarditis? Does it improve if you lean forward?
Either way, sounds like your dose if Bisoprolol isnt doing the trick, nice one for increasing your colchicine, I learnt that one from you! I think you should see your GP tomorrow or at the very least talk to them so you feel able to pop an extra bisoprolol (last night I had to take two extra because I ate something that made me have an episode of HR of 140), it soon settled.
When was the last time you had your thyroid function tested too?
Either way, if its pericarditis and you are confident that it is, nip it in the bud early as I know you will.
If you think that there is any chance that it is something a bit different to pericarditis then make sure you see someone pronto.
And as you know, watch out for a temperature. Last thing you need is infective pericarditis. But you know all about that and I'm just being a major nag, sorry, can't help it, came with my job.
Thank you so much for your very helpful reply particularly as your having such a rough time too. I think my symptoms are the tachycardia because the dizziness and palpitations are new for me and the Colchizine would have sorted it and it hasn't. It's interesting you saying like weathervane that the Bisoprolol is too low and you've benefitted from a higher dose yourself. I'm going to talk to my GP as I've got a stressful time ahead and need to be as well as possible to help my mum recover from a hip replacement!. I had my thyroid checked about four months ago and it's normal and chest pain is worse bending forward I find for pericarditis. I didn't know about infective pericarditis or that an increase in steroids can bring it on so many thanks for the helpful info.
I do headspace type meditations and if you would like to try for 10 days you can for free . I find it so helpful to cope and if you liked it and signed up they do have packs to help with pain and sleep. Just a thought but you probably do something similar!. Hope your better soon and thanks again for your help. Xx
Oh no that all sounds very unpleasant for you Helen, I’m so sorry that it’s got worse and you’re feeling rough with it all, I hope you can talk to your Gp tomorrow and get it sorted out, let’s hope it’s a simple tweak of meds that will do the trick🤞 I know you have a busy week so really hoping you will be feeling better soon.
Thank you Diane for your lovely message and kindness. It could well be a tweak of the beta blocker that will do the trick thanks to Weathervanes advice!. I'm trying extra pain meds and in view of tough week and Easter I shall talk to my GP if no better this week!. It's always a nightmare for us to be ill when a bank holiday comes along!. I think it's called Sod's Law that we always are aren't we?. Hope your feeling better and good luck for trying Aza again!. Fingers tightly crossed you tolerate it better. Xx💐💚😊
Hello, have you had any of the tests for autonomic dysfunction? Sounds like you might have PoTs (postural orthostatic tachycardia) where your heart rate increases a lot when you stand? It’s quite easy to test, measure it lying down then after standing up for 1 min then 3 mins. Mine goes up to 160 very quickly on standing.
It’s a horrible feeling isn’t it? The palpitations, chest pain and dizziness. I got to the point where I was blacking out from standing just for short periods but the bisoprolol has helped a lot with reducing the heart rate (mine was 90-100 even lying down which was very high for me). I think the weird heart rate also makes the fatigue far worse - I suppose it’s like we’re running a marathon?! I asked the dr about increasing the bisoprolol but she said that can make the fatigue worse so it’s a balance I suppose for all of us.
I think it’s very connected with autoimmunity but not very well known. Google dysautonomia and see if anything fits with your symptoms - when I looked up dysautonomia a lot of the things I’d had going wrong all suddenly made sense. I have lots of the problems but some people will just have the heart rate/ blood pressure ones and there are treatments/ lifestyle changes that can really help (drink loads!). I’m hoping it’s just part of a lupus flare and will go away for us all at some stage!
Hope you feel better soon and everything goes well with your mum this week
Thank you so much for your lovely, helpful reply. I'm sorry you have POTS too as I know there are several forum members with it and how difficult it is to live with. I haven't had any tests for it and did Google dysautonomia and could say I've got several symptoms so will keep it in mind. Interesting that you can just have the blood pressure problems. I find the dizziness and palpitations etc are worse after some walking and better on rest rather than just standing!. That must be so hard to live with. Do hope your better soon. I am drinking lots funnily enough and do agree with you about fatigue increase!. I was tired before but oh boy am doing so little and feeling wiped out!. That too is hard to live with. I will ask my GP before Easter about increasing the Bisoprolol!. Interesting that yours said it increases fatigue!. It's a tough juggle we have isn't it?.Thanks for your good wishes for us both. I will do an update and I hope you have a happy Easter and are better soon. X
Thank you joy for your lovely message. I'm going to talk to my GP again before Easter to see if my beta blocker can be increased to help. I hope your doing well with your steroid reduction and have a great Easter and break from work x
You are welcome Misty. Sounds like you have a good plan to put into action.
Misty what are the thoughts behind the pericarditis? Has it come about because of the UCTD or the long term effects of taking steroids?
Wishing you a good Easter break too. Glad to see the forecasters have changed their minds about a repeat of the 'Beast from the East' arriving just in time for the Easter get away!
Hi joy, thanks for your lovely message. The pericarditis has come thanks to the UCTD!. Inflammation was found on a ct scan between my heart and lungs and became my breakthru in treatment. How are you getting on ?. Hope you have a good Easter break. Glad the forecast has changed for people travelling!. Are you one?. Mum's having her hip replacement op on Thursday so part of Easter will be spent at our local hospital but for once I'm not the patient!. All the best. Xx
Just a quick update I've had to phone my GP this afternoon as getting strong symptoms. He said to increase Bisoprolol now and go see him tomorrow for pulse and blood pressure check. Hopefully will be better. Thank you for your help and advice. Happy EasterX
Hi misty I read about it when I googled pregabalin as someone had mentioned it on one of the sites and I always check on things like that because of my afib and it verified it as I’m not taking it now but was at the time and I know amitriptyline can effect afib I didn’t want two drugs that could effect it and as amitriptyline seemed to help without any side effect for me I’ve stayed with amitriptyline but I’m begging to think almost every sheet you get with any medication says things like that to cover themselves
What treatment are you on for Afib as my dad has it and was put on warfarin, a blood pressure medication and a statin!. Was overwhelming as he'd been so well all his life!.
I do find the patient info leaflets do state all the side effects as you rightly say to cover themselves!. Can really put us off any drug can't it?.
Hi misty I’m on apixaban and verapamil plus Crestor a statin I’m fine with those but the statin does make me ache a bit with me it’s my neuropathy that I’ve had a hard time dealing with but at the moment 20 mg of amitriptyline is very helpful plus magnesium which I get from a company called health span hope your dad stays ok x
I'm so glad the Amitriptyline is working for you. Neuropathy as I know too is tough to live with. Dads on different medication to you and is doing really well thanks for asking. His was picked up by a routine test as his is symptomless!. Was yours?. All the best for the benefit to last. X
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