posted
I had the STRANGEST & SCARIEST experience while the doctors where trying to lower my heart rate to do a CTA of my heart.
Forgive me...................I'm still a little loopy from late afternoon yesterday.
The MRA was to check for any calcium o junk clogging up my heart valves. Thank goodness, the doctor way they were not! He said said "your pipes are clear!"
That's about all of the good news I heard or felt. In order to do the MRA, they have to get your heat rate down into the 50's-60's range. (I'm usually in the mid 80's to mid 100 and something.) In order to do that, they had to give some medicine, to slow it down.
Apparently they get better images that way. Well, we all know that hindsight is 20-20; but with all of these strange sx I've been having for a good amount of time, especially recently, it was time to take a peek inside.
Long story short: They administered 50mg of Toprol by mouth and then things started to happen. Now, keep in mind that I've been taking 25 mg. of Toprol at bed time for a looong time.
I started having weird sx shortly after taking to Toprol ----- I didn't even ask what they were giving me, since I was answering questions for the doctor in that lab.
They left the room and asked me to try to relax, which the Toprol did ----- it makes me sleepy --- that's why I take it at night. I WAS relaxed, and sleepy, to. Honestly, I wasn't stressed or anything. I was comfortable in that big chair!
All of a sudden I started feeling my heart beating all over my body and I could feel my heart about to jump out of my chest, ears, hands, feet, you name it. My head and throat were killing me too. It felt like my whole body was a heartbeat, but in different places at different times.
I waited to press the "nurse button" until my throat felt like it was about to explode or completely shut on me. It was heard to make myself swallow my own saliva.
THEN came the crushing chest pain, like a giant tight rubber band around it. It was hard to breathe in a normal manner, and I was coughing. My face felt numb on the left lower side, and BOTH of my arms from the finger tips completetly up both arms were numb, tingling and painful.
This feeling continued through both shoulders, the left shoulder blade area, my neck/throat, my entire chest from side to side, the right shoulder and on down my right arm, just like my left arm (only a little milder.)
They told me my face and what they could see of my neck and chest were BRIGHT red and moist right before I started to have all of this pain. I felt like I was "disappearing??????"
It hurt so bad, I was trying to fight back tears. I would have periodic sharp or dull deep pains towards my left side of my chest (the same area I typically get chest pains.) It was hard to breathe in any type of normal pattern, sometimes I was taking tiny short little "nothing" breaths.
They were hurting so bad I was making "ooowww" noises, pushing on the area instead of holding my whole chest, and telling the 3 doctors and 2 nurses who were in there at that point. I could hear my heartbeat on the machine, and it was so bizarre and irregular. Sometimes really fast, sometimes it would just skip a beat or two, or beat double.
I heard the doctor whisper "look at her blood pressure and heart rate right now, they're all in the triple digits." They told me they were calling my regular cardiologist (who was just a crosswalk away.) They were scurrying all over the place.
The nurse came back in and injected some other heart medicine that started with a "c" to see if it would make things calm down ------- which it didn't. At that point, they injected some Benadryl.
The nurse also came in with a bag of saline and a bunch of other stuff. (That was reassuring!) I though ---- "Oh great, here we go, somthing not so good is about to happen."
The Benadryl (I guess) finally started to make things calm down a bit and make some of the pain go away, but then things started getting worse again. Heeeeerrrrrrrrre came some more Benadryl. That finally started to work a bit better.
During this whole time, I kept telling them "I dodn't like this at all!" I told them to "make all of it go away NOW!!!! I was scared to death, but at the same time I was sleepy and all of my words were slurred together.
I finally asked them WHAT in the WORLD did they give me to makes my heart rate slow down in the first place???????? They told me 50mg of TOPROL!!!!!! That's TWICE the amount I take at bedtime!!!!!!!!!
They told me they had never seen anything like this happen before and they were all shaking their heads. B$! They kept asking me if I had any med changes and I kept telling them NO!
Could this have been an allergic reaction? If so, why does it help me when I take 25mg at night? I don't get any of those reactions!
A nurse at the OTHER cardiologist's office who they are sending me to (a cardiac-electrophysiologist/cardiologist) says the first thing that comes to her mind is that it was more like an "overdose of the Toprol." THAT would make more sense to me, since I take only 25mg every night with no problems!
I'm going to this other cardiologist for another Tilt Table Test (I haven't had one since sometime in '04. Not looking forward to it, but we've got to keep ruling out heart issues ---- if that's possible!
We still never have come up with any kind of explanation for my "bleeding bladder." I'm doing the bladder cancer test in a couple of weeks. It just requires urine..........yea!!!!!
Well, I've taken up enough of your time (for those of you who have even bothered to read this long post) and I'm exhausted. I slept 2 hours last night and I still can't walk straight due to all of that medicine they kept pumping in me!
Any thoughts or comments on any of this crazy incident are appreciated. (I didn't even get to tell you WHY I went to the cardiologist in the first place. Similar incident at home, but less intense.
Gotta go to bed. Hubby is concerned that I'm not under the covers asleep. He's right, I should be asleep-----------I'm just scared I'm going to start feeling weird again. If I do, we're going straight to the hospital.......doctor's orders.
Thanks for listening & I care about each and every single one of you! Life is precious ----- don't take anything for granted!
Take care and sweet dreams, terri3boys
Posts: 268 | From Texas | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
So sorry, that sounds like an awful day :-( It does sound like a crazy allergic reaction. I can see where injections are more potent, as opposed to taking orally which is more of a slower release to the body.
I also have blood in my urine very frequently and Group B Strep. they have given me every test on the kidney/bladder and "nothing". I'm thinking that once I get rid of the Lyme, maybe this will disappear. I'm reading how lyme loves the bladder/kidneys :-(
Take care and I hope you feel better soon.
-------------------- LAXlover Posts: 371 | From Northern Baltimore Area | Registered: Apr 2010
| IP: Logged |
feelfit
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 12770
posted
wow terri,
what an ordeal! only here to give you some support...no answers here.
hope that you get to the bottom of this soon...i know the heart stuff is very scary!
Posts: 3975 | From usa | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
LAXlover ---- the 50mg of Toprol WAS given orally! The red face, neck, and God knows what else happened AFTER the Toprol was given by mouth.
They just gave it to me like it was a piece of candy, very matter-of-fact, "this is to help lower your heart rate, so we can do the test."
So, it wasn't given through my IV where it just BAM! hit my system. That's what's so strange. It's a medicine I take every night, with NO reaction like that!
Maybe I should be tested for Group B Strep ---- is it systemic? And contagious?
As far as the "hemmoragic bladder" goes, it was like a semi-bladder infection that never really came on full force. Some days were completely normal, others had a couple of sx.
NO BLEEDING until that Thursday morning, and it started out with just a couple of drops of blood and progressed withing less than an hour into small clots!
It was like a "mini-miscarriage." I've had 3 kids and a complete hysterectomy about 9 years ago. When the urologist scoped me, it looked like big bright red ulcers in my bladder.
He flushed it out and I had no more bleeding after that, just soreness and pain. It was like a modified D&C. No bacteria grew from the urine culture and the urinalysis had too much blood in it to see much of anything.
He doesn't want to biopsy my bladder because he thinks it will aggravate it and everything else too much. That's why he wants to do the urine test, which I'm sure will come back negative.
That would be great! But, still no answers from any of my doctors! They say "Only YOU, Terri!" I just try to laugh along with them!
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post and your personal experience makes me feel not so weird!
Also, thanks for your good wishes!
Take care, terri3boys
Posts: 268 | From Texas | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
Thanks for your words of encouragement and all of your support!
Sometimes, just some special person reaches out and says "I'm listening and I want you to get better." That can make ALL the difference in the world, and I really appreciate your kind words!
Take care, terri3boys
Posts: 268 | From Texas | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Did they give you any dye for the MRA, by any chance? An allergic reaction is a possibility.
The Toprol thing is an odd one though, since you already take 25mg with apparently no bad reactions? Or perhaps your similar incident at home was also a reaction to the Toprol? The normal dosing is 25-100mg/daily (I think) so I'm not sure it was an overdose type of situation really. Too much of a beta blocker tends to slow your heart rate down, not speed it up.
And they can rule our a heart attack by checking your blood, which I assume they did after your attack -- I'd assume they did all sorts of blood tests, actually.
Posts: 584 | From NY | Registered: Feb 2009
| IP: Logged |
Yes, they gave me dye for the MRA, BUT THAT WAS AFTER the "incident" with the Toprol! I haven't ever had an allergic reaction to the dye either, knock on wood.
The Toprol was given to me ORALLY before we could even proceed with the MRA. They even told me they "didn't think the MRA was going to be happening that day" ------due to my sx and extremely high blood pressure!
Everything that happened with the Toprol fiasco was in a totally different room, with some other medicine given through my IV to help counteract the Toprol (which started with the letter 'c') and then I was given Benadryl TWICE through the IV.
Finally, about 3.5 hours into this lovely experience, my cardiologist (who was across the street) gave the green light to the other 2 doctors, 1 tech and 2 nurses to go ahead and do the MRA............only because my heart rate was amazingly hovering around 58-62.
They were all so happy and anxious to get that MRA over with while my heart rate was that low! Of course, I had to pee sooooooo bad and when I asked them, they were reluctant to let me because they didn't want my heart rate to go back up.
They got me in my robe v-e-r-y slowly and told me to hardly move while I was going to the bathroom. They were so paranoid, but so was I.
I've been taking Toprol a long time. At one point, I was breaking the 25mg tablet in half, because the 25mg made my blood pressure too low!
The incident that happened at home wasn't anywhere near the time I take the Toprol, which is at bedtime. Go figure!
Nope, they didn't do any blood tests during or after the Toprol incident. They did some blood work in the lab before they even sent me across the street to the "Toprol" room and then wheeled me down the hall for the MRA.
Now that you mention it, I'm kind of mad they didn't do any blood work during all of that confusion ------ they had an IV in me and everything! I think when that nurse came in with all of that stuff, she was prepared to do blood tests. She had an IV bag, plus other various lab things.
She asked the doctor "on call" who was in the room about getting some fluids in me, and I think my heart rate just barely started to go down a few points. She was ready with the bag and about to hook it up and he said that we weren't going to need it just yet. He wanted to see if that 2nd dose of Benadryl would turn me into a zombie, which it almost did.
I could hardly make a sentence. I got better later, but they refused to let me drive home. I had to call my husband, and then leave my car at the Medical Center overnight..........not exactly convenient.
So, the Toprol remains a mystery and created a big hassle! Why am I still up???????????
Thanks for your input! I appreciate it!
Any other theories out there???
Thanks, terri3boys
Posts: 268 | From Texas | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
littlebit27
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 24477
posted
I have no words of widsom, never been through something like that.
But I did want to say I am glad you are ok and sorry you had an experience like that. My anxiety is so bad now I think I would have flipped out.
Maybe next time they say they want to try something new your husband should come with you, lol. That way someone is completely sane to do the yelling!
Sorry for the experience, and I hope they can pinpoint the problem (or find no problem at all!!)
If one assumes it is the toprol they gave you, then logically one would also assume the toprol you take daily would also be causing a problem. But it isn't...
One possibility, although probably very remote, is they used a generic, or different brand of toprol than you normally take, and you are allergic to one of the fillers.
Assuming they had you hooked up to an EKG, I would think they could rule out a heart attack, artery spasm, etc. as they'd see it happening on the readout. Still... kinda odd they did no bloodwork afterwards.
Posts: 584 | From NY | Registered: Feb 2009
| IP: Logged |
posted
I had a similar experience when a doctor in the ER gave me adenosine, which was supposed to slow my heart down--it had the opposite effect. I went from a heart rate in the l30's to the 200's. Thought I was going to die right there.
Obviously they didn't give you that, since adenosine is an iv drug, but I'm wondering if a mistake was made and they accidentally gave you something other than Toprol. It just seems weird that you would have such a bad reaction to a drug that you've been taking right along.
Posts: 227 | From Northeast | Registered: Mar 2010
| IP: Logged |
posted
The nurse from the cardiologist's office called me today. She was "checking" on me. I went through the WHOLE thing that happened............she knew nothing about it and said that the hospital did NOT contact my regular cardiologist!!!!!!
She said they would have had to go through HER to get to him and she was totally unaware of what happened. She also has NO CLUE as to what might have caused that reaction........nada!
At least I have an appt. on Tuesday, and you better believe I'm going to get to the bottom of this. She suggested that maybe I was anxious and I reminded her how SLEEPY I was after the 1st (supposedly) 50mg Toprol.
AND, how the Lopresser that says it was administered "orally" and by "IV" on the one sheet they sent me home with me ----- saying it was used in preparation for the test.
Nothing about Toprol. Are these the same drug formulas? Maybe THAT was the problem! It says nothing about the administration of Benadryl given TWICE by IV, either.
It says I had the Iodine contrast and the nitroglycerine for the MRA. I want the rest of ALL the record/notes that went on for that miserable 3.5+ hours. I'm STILL not talking that normally (but much better) and I'm still walking into walls and acting clumsy.
The nurse told me to continue to take it easy and rest. Since I see the cardiologist on Tuesday, I think I can manage. Otherwise, I'd be jumping all over those people!
I'll keep y'all posted! Any other theories are welcomed. I'm going into the doctor's office with a list, AFTER he tries to explain what happened.
Thanks for all of your help & ideas & concern & support!
Love, terri3boys
Posts: 268 | From Texas | Registered: Aug 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Wow...maybe it was a different brand and if you are like me any binders, fillers, or dyes can set things off!!!!! Get the notes but usually they will say all is fine and not even mention the incident!!! Saving their assets so to speak. God Bless
Posts: 871 | From orange county, ca. | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
lululymemom
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 26405
posted
Sorry to hear about your experience with the Toprol. I have been on 25mg of Atenolol for a couple of years now and know how it can slow down the heart. I've also had a severe allergic reaction to contract dye(iodine)prior to a CT scan. I'm not sure when you had that administered but that is something to consider.
A few years ago I was experiencing similar unexplained heart issues that the doctors couldn't explain. The one thing they did do was check my troponin levels (heart enzymes) to ensure that no damage was done to my heart. They continued this every day for the next 5 days. It's important that this be done as close to the incident as possible.
One thing this experience has taught me is to question everything the doctors want to do, sometimes they place us at risk unintentionally and we have to be our own advocates.
I hope everything turns out well for you, it sounds like you're getting back to normal.
The Lyme Disease Network is a non-profit organization funded by individual donations. If you would like to support the Network and the LymeNet system of Web services, please send your donations to:
The
Lyme Disease Network of New Jersey 907 Pebble Creek Court,
Pennington,
NJ08534USA http://www.lymenet.org/
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
I had the STRANGEST & SCARIEST experience while the doctors where trying to lower my heart rate to do a CTA of my heart.
Printer-friendly view of this topic