SIde Effect of Coreg?

[wtsparkle]

Hello Dr. Fett. I have a question for you. Monday I went in on a regular Cardio appointment. He felt things were good even with the heavy chest congestion, sob, and weight battle. He did up my coreg from 12.5 twice daily to 25 mg twice daily and gave me zaroxolyn 2.5 to take along with my Bumetanide 1 mg. Well I did take it Monday night and woke up with what feels like hyperventalating breaths, can't sleep, sweats, and my bp dropped to 75/54. I assumed it was from the diuretic since I had this problem in the past when I was first diagnosed. I called my Dr. Tuesday and had me come in for a new echo. Surprisingly my EF went up to 40% and my heart size has shrunk. Great news. we did stop the zaroxolyn permantly and was told not to take the other diuretic until my bp went up and stayed up. Well I woke up today feeling much better. A bit dizzy when ever I stood, but nothing surprising. I just started teaching when I felt extreme sob. It got to the point that I knew there was a problem and I couldn't talk in a sentence. I went to the school nurse, couldn't speak, extreme battle with breathing, my oxygen level was 85 but quicklky went up after sitting a few min. In the meantime they called an ambulance. They decided it was better to go to the ER than not since I was still sob. While at the er they did a ekg which was normal, chest x-ray was fine and the only problem w/ the blood work was low potassium/sodium which I took an extra dose of. The er doctor basically told me it was in my head. Even after hearing I had PPCM, he asked me why I was on Coreg. I was shocked. Then to find out he was surprised I was on a blood thinner. At this time I doubt the dr. has any clue in the world what is going on. They dismissed me after a short time. My dh was a bit worried since my pulse went down to 35 several times while there, but went back to 80's very quickly. I suppose my question is this....could this be from the added dose of Coreg? I am very worried about the sob. I have never had it this bad before. I feel better, but still can tell it's there.

Thank you, Heather

[JAMESFETT]

It is certainly good news that your EF has gone up to 40 %! When you go over 30 %, usually an anticoagulant is no longer necessary unless there are other circumtances, you can check with your doctor on that. It is important that you keep your potassium up and that your diuretic needs are carefully weighed, since too much diuretic with fluid loss and circulatory volume down, the Coreg will have an even greater effect to lower B.P. Possibly your jump in Coreg needs to be a bit more gradual since it sounds like some of your symptoms are related to the increased dosage of Coreg. Nevertheless, most of your situation sounds cool, and I am pleased with your progress.

JD