Trying Lopressor

I've had palpitations on and off for years now, but now in my third trimester of this pregnancy, I recently started feeling them more frequently. I had been able to chalk the significant increase up to the increased demands on my heart for my growing baby, but when I had felt more than 30 flutters in on day while I was at work, it was hard to keep my anxiety and panic at bay. I had started taking Xanax again when the palpitations started up, even though I swore to stop taking Xanax for the entire duration of the pregnancy. That's when I knew I needed to explore other alternatives.

Last week, I finally called the advice nurse at my OB's office and asked if the palpitations were enough for them to be concerned. She suggested I get an EKG done at with my PCP and to let them know what they found.

I got the EKG done the following day and nothing showed up during the test other than a resting heart rate of about 104bpm. My PCP listened closely to my heart for a couple of minutes and finally decided that she wanted to investigate further with an echocardiogram. Apparently, she heard clicking sound that's most oftenly associated with Mitral Valve Prolapse (MVP). I've suspected MVP for years but never got any feedback from any of my doctors to suggest that MVP might be the reason I'd been having palpitations on and off. It was actually somewhat a relief to finally be on the road to having a diagnosis, after so many years of being told that everything was normal when I so obviously did not feel normal. My PCP wanted to prescribe me a low dose of a beta blocker, but didn't want to do anything without the consent of my OB.

The following day, I faxed my EKG results and also a list of beta blockers to my OB who called me and told me to try the following things first: avoid caffeine, avoid strenuous activity, and increase my fluid intake to prevent dehydration. All things that I honestly have already been doing on my own to combat the palps. I decided that I would give myself until my next scheduled OB appointment to see if doing these things would be enough to eliminate the occurrence of palpitations. Despite these measures, I continued feeling palpitations throughout the week and the weekend.

Finally, it was time for my 7 month OB appointment. And while I had seen a decrease in the number of palpitations I was having on a daily basis, it was still enough to invoke feelings of anxiety or panic intense enough for me to have taken either 0.25mg or 0.5mg of Xanax to calm myself.

My OB gave the okay for me to obtain a prescription for a beta blocker from my PCP, which was exactly what I had been hoping for. My PCP prescribed 25mg of Lopressor (aka: Metoprolol), which is apparently a really low dose compared to how much would be prescribed for lowering blood pressure. My blood pressure is ALWAYS lower than the normal 120/80, so the low dose is so that my blood pressure isn't lowered too much lower.

I took my first dose last night. I also took my pulse before taking the Lopressor and it was a whopping 136bpm. That's resting. I wasn't doing anything but lying in bed for at least an hour prior to taking my pulse. A couple of hours after taking the Lopressor, my pulse was back down to 80bpm. Still early to tell whether the beta blocker is going to have long-lasting effects, but I can say that I haven't felt so much as a flutter or a racing heartbeat since taking it yesterday, so I'd say that so far it seems promising. I just don't want to get my hopes up.

I've been reading The Mitral Valve Prolapse Syndrome/Dysautonomia Survival Guide by James F. Durante for information on the science behind all of this and there is an account of a patient with MVP Syndrome who tried beta blockers to help ease her palpitations and related panic attacks. She says that after 10 days on the beta blockers, the panic attacks stopped completely, and then when she stopped taking the beta blockers a couple of months later, the panic attacks never came back. I hope one day I can say the same about my own experience.