How will you know you've reached your tolerance level to Coreg?

[Yvonne]

I'm still in the "race" to up titrate my dosage of Coreg. I'm at the moment on 18,75 mg twice a day. My doctor want met to go to 25, but the nursepractionere who is looking after my during each increase thinks 18,75 is enough. I can understand both opinions. After every increase it costs me more and more time to adjust to the new dosage and I always have a serious dip in this time with almost symptoms of heartfailure. Now I'm again in my dip. It is 5 weeks after the change and I feel really tired, SOB after exertion and faint. My BP and HR are okay, but my HR drops in rest. I know, from the other times, I will recover from this and climb out of the valley. Then I will feel great, even better then before the increase. But I will just realize this when I've really reached this point. So know I'm hesitating again.
Maybe the dosage is too high and I have reached my tolerance? Or will it just takes some more time?

On the internet I've read that the dosage of Coreg can give symptoms of heartfailure. Can adjusting to Coreg also have an effect (decline) on your EF at the moment you're still adjusting?

[mikeyandBellesmommy]

Well when I reached my tolerance I felt exactly how you describe. i was tired to the point of exhaustion and everything else. They actually ended up weanign me down and taking me off because no level was small enough and I just couldn't get over the fatigue. I ended up doing good without it. In your case you should def stay on it but you may have reached your level.. I would call your nurse and tell her how you feel.. 5 weeks seems a little long to still feel crappy..
although I am not a doc

;)

[christyh]

I got up to 25 twice a day, and that was my tolerance level. It seemed the more they upped me the worse I felt. So tired and exausted all the time, I was taking 3 naps a day and gaining weight because I simply could not get up to do anything. My blood pressure was very low for me also, 80/50 on a good day. I'm down to 6.25 2x daily now and it suits me just fine if I never take a higher dosage again. Do tell your nurse and doctor how you feel, five weeks does seem like a long enough time to adjust to it. Hang in there!

[SerenaWelsh]

I've never been on coreg, but for me, "they" decided I reached my tolerence level of Toprol XL (another ACE inhibitor) based on heart rate and BP. For about 5 months I'd felt like you describe, but they did nothing.
Usually when I arrive at my appointments, I'm running a little late and have to really book-it to make it in to my appointment on time. By the time they take my BP and HR, everything's a little elevated from the little exercise I'd just gotten.
On the one occasion that I got there very early and had a while to sit quietly and read before they called me back, my HR was 48 and my BP was 60/47.
Not only did they lower my Toprol, they made me eat and drink something to try to elevate it before they let me go.
Do you have a home BP machine? Maybe keeping a record of your HR and BP several times a day would help them better understand what the coreg is doing to you?

[Caramommy]

Oh, Serena, I think you meant to say that Toprol XL was a beta blocker, not an ACE inhibitor. That stuff was hard on me, I tell ya....I had trouble even feeling normal emotion on that! Coreg has been much kinder to me. I'm on 25 two times a day, and I was on so much Toprol in the first place that moving from one to the other didn't even phase me. But titrating up the Toprol really made me feel bad for up to a month or so...like I had the flu. Exercise was the only way I could find to counter the way it made me feel, but I was glad to get off of it because of how it stifled my emotions so badly. Even with Coreg, I find I can't cry like I normally would. I can feel horrible like I want to cry, but the tears won't come until something hits me pretty hard. Weird, huh?

Anyway, I guess some people might have trouble with higher doses of Coreg, but my doctor's advice was to just cope with it until my body got used to it, because the higher doses are what do you the most good.


Cara