posted
My grandmother (whom we suspected was either born with or acquired Lyme as a young child) was prescribed this for heart flutters. I don't know when the last time she took it was (before last week), but she'd been using nitro patches for her heart fluttering, and they had been working fine.
She asked the dr for some more patches, and he had a nurse call after hours to tell my mom and my aunt to give her the atenelol...that it was for the heart fluttering, not the nitro patches.
They gave her a pill Thurs. am before last and that day she had horrible stomach cramps and her blood pressure dropped very low. Also, instead of making the heart stop fluttering, the atenelol made it flutter even worse! They gave her the next one Friday morning, and she got even worse. They spent 4hr trying to even get her blood pressure to read on the monitor. When it did it was 70/45! They decided no more atenelol for her!
Unfortunely, it was too late. The two days of such low blood pressure caused her kidneys to fail. She died the next morning (Sat before last).
Why did the atenelol that was supposed to STOP heart flutters CAUSE heart flutters?? Was this because of the Lyme?
As an aside, she had recently started antibiotic therapy and had seen her severe back pain of 10+ years disappear completely! She took Levaquin for a short time before switching to amoxicillin. This was proof enough to her and my mom and aunt, that they had found the right thing to do for her... she had an infection and needed antibiotics. Had she not taken the atenelol, my mom figures she would've had at least 2 more years, during which time my grandmother had already said she would be taking herbs and such to combat the Lyme.
I feel like we got so close to solving a decades-long mystery, only to have it slip from our hands at the very last instant because of a lack of knowledge about Lyme in the medical community.
Posts: 155 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2007
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heiwalove
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 6467
posted
wow, i'm so sorry to hear this. my condolences to you and your family. <3
i've been on atenolol for three years for mitral valve prolapse caused by lyme, and it definitely helps me, slows and steadies my pulse. it does lower blood pressure so i have to be careful and only take a couple slivers each day. but i wouldn't be without it.
again, i'm really sorry about your grandmother. i wonder if you'll get more information about what happened upon autopsy?
posted
My sincere condolences on your loss. I think it's very tragic because in my mind, it's the atenolol to blame. (actually, the dr is to blame)
It can drop the blood pressure a lot and the dr should have been "warned" by the first drop in BP that she had. She should never have been given the second pill.
-------------------- --Lymetutu-- Opinions, not medical advice! Posts: 96239 | From Texas | Registered: Feb 2001
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Dawn in VA
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 9693
posted
Oh my gosh, I am so sorry to hear about your grandmother. Hugs to you and to your family as you go through this.
I was on atenolol many, many years ago for a couple of years and it did what it was supposed to do, so I can't give any other insight. I wonder if it was the atenolol alone or if they're anything in the literature about amoxy + atenolol combination issues. Don't have an idea.
Again, so sorry to hear about your loss.
-------------------- (The ole disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.) Posts: 1349 | From VA | Registered: Jul 2006
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quote:Originally posted by heiwalove: wow, i'm so sorry to hear this. my condolences to you and your family. <3
i've been on atenolol for three years for mitral valve prolapse caused by lyme, and it definitely helps me, slows and steadies my pulse. it does lower blood pressure so i have to be careful and only take a couple slivers each day. but i wouldn't be without it.
again, i'm really sorry about your grandmother. i wonder if you'll get more information about what happened upon autopsy?
take good care.
i've been on Atenolol for 5 years and it really helped my POTS syndrome which I'm sure many are familiar with.good luck
Wetlimey
-------------------- God help us Posts: 2 | From West Coast | Registered: Oct 2010
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posted
a couple of slivers! WOW! Those pills are tee-nincey as it is! When mom showed them to me, I was like good grief... 2 of THOSE killed her?? I wonder if the Lyme/co. makes our bodies more susceptible to certain drugs, and less to others.
I know of lots of people on here who have to taken tiny doses of say flagyl, but then require huge doses of sleep meds, for instance. (Including myself.) My grandmother would have fit into that category, I'm sure.
Several times over the years, the doctors THOUGHT she was 'knocked out' or 'under' and she was NOT! She went through a c-section that way! Just recently when she was in the hospital for flash pulmonary edema (docs finally decided due to some stealth infection...gee, ya think?), they had her intubated for a week or so, and to keep her from worrying, they 'sedated' her. Later come to find out it only paralyzed her. She still heard every word that was said! =(
Autopsy didn't show anything, because there wasn't one. My grandmother had a living will and other instructions to go with it. One of which was no autopsy, another no embalming. I don't know what the 'official' cause of death is, but suspect it will be something vague like 'heart failure'.
Don't know what if anything will be done about the dr, either. I'm assuming he was aware of the drop in BP the first day, as she had home health and the nurse was there/aware.
My mom, unfortunely, feels like it is her fault...that she didn't check out the meds herself before giving them to her mom and so she is to blame. =( She says she should've known to not give it to her, since it was a BP med (though I don't think she knew that at the time!) and they'd already been fighting low BP.
My mom's quick thinking and lack of complete trust (and rightfully so!!) of the drs saved my dad's life a number of times a few years ago. The first time it was a very similar situation. He normally has low BP, went into hospital and his BP raised because of pain from colon cancer/surgery. They started pumping him full of BP meds. Sent him home on 3 or 4 of them, and wearing 3 clonidine (??) patches.
We had him in a dr office the next day, and once he saw he had 2 of those patches on (we'd already pulled one off), he sent us straight to the ER. I think he was scared Dad was going to drop dead right there and he didn't want to get in trouble for it! lol
Anyhow, because Mom was able to thwart several near-death attempts with Dad, she feels fully responsible for not stopping this one fatal accident with her mom. =( I hate that! =(
Posts: 155 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2007
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posted
Atenolol dropped my bp too low on half of the lowest dose. The 1st dose did it.
My bp is normally ok and even too high in the doctor's office (while coat hypertension), but I cannot tolerate bp meds. They instantly drop my bp too low.
I am sorry about your grandmother.
Posts: 819 | From East Coast | Registered: Apr 2009
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posted
kitty- that sounds like my gma and dad, alright. ALL the BP meds worked way TOO well on them... I'm very leary of any BP meds anymore!
Posts: 155 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2007
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sammy
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 13952
posted
You asked if anyone has experience with atenolol, my cat takes a 1/4 of a pill twice daily for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. It helps the heart pump more effectively. Slows the rate down, increases blood flow, and lowers blood pressure because the heart doesn't have to work so hard.
It seems like many of us with Lyme and Co's respond to meds in a different way than "healthy" people. I'm scared to ever have major surgery because sedatives and anesthetics do not seem to work for me. I've been given 5x the normal amount of versed plus demerol and had no noticeable effect. Made my doctor freak out. Lidocaine doesn't work well either, it wears off super quick.
Your grandma was a fighter, a strong woman to make it through a c-section and being intubated for a whole week without adequate sedation! What a nightmare.
SmurfyMom, I'm so sorry to hear that she passed away. I wish I could reach through the computer and give you a real hug.
Posts: 5237 | From here | Registered: Nov 2007
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posted
wow sammy! I react the same way thus far. I've never had versed, but I can remember as a kid needing TONS of lidocaine when I had a couple of crowns put on and even then still had major pain. They maxed out, though, and couldn't give me any more. Also I was taking 150mg of trazadone for sleep there for awhile and it did absolutely nothing. My LLMD said that was enough to knock out an elephant and asked if I'd tried a rubber mallet. lol
I'm terrified of surgery myself, for the same reason. I just have this feeling based on my reactions to meds in the past that what my gma went through...I would end up going through. *shudder*
Strong is an understatement for her, though, really. She left the country as a very young wife/mother to serve as a missionary in a foreign country where she didn't know anyone or the language. When they had 5 kids, they were all under 7yr! Then after a few years on the field (and 1 more live child added to the family) came back to the states with her husband to focus more on being a family, only to have him run off with his secretary. He left her alone with 6 kids, never having held a job. She didn't even know how to write a check.
She raised those kids on her own, working 2 or 3 jobs at all times, and often at night. She did get remarried (to a WONDERFUL man), but when she did so, there was only the baby left at home, and only through his teen years.
Aside from (almost surely!) having Lyme all those years and all the associated symptoms and problems caused by that, she also lived through rheumatic fever, and hepatitis C, as well as several skin cancers. Then there was the Bells Palsy (though I believe that was due to Lyme) and the seizures (again prob lyme, but officially a medication reaction) and horrible mood swings.
I think without question, one of the first words that comes to any one of the family's minds when they think of MawMaw is STRONG. =) The next couple of statements voiced most often at visitatiion and the funeral were AWESOME and THE MOST AMAZING PERSON I'VE EVER KNOWN. =)
She was and is a legend! =)
Posts: 155 | From Texas | Registered: Oct 2007
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