More symptoms

I went and saw Dr. O (cardiologist) again in May of 2005. I was having a lot of headaches and having difficulty sleeping and thought maybe it was the Toprol XL. I talked to him about my older sister who had had some similar heart-racing problems (she had mitral-valve prolapse) and was put on Atenolol. He thought maybe trying this beta blocker might help if it helped her – thinking maybe our body chemistry was the same. I started taking Atenolol, but it made me feel very shaky. I felt like I was shaking from the inside out, but you couldn’t see my hands shake or anything. It just felt like they were. I really didn’t like that feeling, so I went back to the Utah Heart Clinic, this time I got in with Dr. C, another arrhythmia specialist. He gave me some samples of another beta blocker, Coreg, to try. I vomited for 2 days after taking it. I don't know if I got a stomach bug or just had a bad reaction. I decided to go back to Dr. Tipton and told him that I felt better on Toprol XL than the other beta blockers and wondered if the generic Metoprolol would be good to try. So I went on that at 25 mg per day, twice daily for a while and did that for several months.

After my yearly physical with Dr. T the following January of 2006, I told him that on metoprolol, I was doing okay, but kept having what I call blood pressure spikes. I would get a real tingly feeling in my head and when I’d check my blood pressure it would be high, and after a few minutes go back to normal. I told him that I felt better while taking the Toprol XL than on anything else I had tried, so I went back on that at 50 mg per day.

Then, I had started having stomach problems. I was having a lot of gas and having a bowel movement sometimes 4 or 5 times a day, needing to go right after eating. There was also mucus in my stool and some food not digesting well. He thought it might be irritable bowel syndrome and gave me a prescription for something, I don’t remember the name. After taking it, I felt more lightheaded, so I decided to look for another option. Searching on the Internet I found a product called Digestive Advantage for IBS that said it was natural and didn’t have side effects. I found it at Rite Aid and thought I’d ask Dr. T his opinion on it had another appointment with him. He didn’t think it would work, but said he didn’t think it would hurt me either, so I decided to try it. After a week of taking it I started feeling much better as far as my stomach goes.

I should probably mention some other symptoms that I had off and on during this time as well. My arms would go numb at night, one or the other or both – usually when laying on my back with hands resting on my stomach. Probably poor circulation. I would also have bad headaches still. Brain fog, where it seemed like I would forget things a lot, fatigue and tiredness. Occasionally my lower center back would be sore, sometimes my neck and middle of my back. Also I would occasionally get a real tired feeling in my eyes, kind of a soreness, and sensitivity to bright light. My heart would feel like it would skip a beat sometimes – usually more around the beginning of my period (and still does), and I had a lack of interest in intimacy. My periods would be really heavy for the first couple of days and then taper off around the 4th day and then pick back up again a day or so after that. To be continued...