Profile picture for user Julia
Julia K. Caregiver

High heart rate

Wed, 12/19/2018 - 12:44PM

My husband got a HeartMate3 on Sept 13, 2018 - his 76th birthday.  He went from final stages of heart failure - basically send him home on a drip to die - to a remarkable recovery.  Other than his heart, he has always been physically fit.  After surgery and adjustment, he went home after 2 weeks, weak but improving every day.  His heart rate was normal.  Suddenly,  several weeks ago,  his heart rate jumped to 120's.  An increase in his Coreg brought it down a little and we are starting another increase to 12.5 MG x 2 per day.  Metoprolol made him very sick - vomiting etc.  so we are on Corge (carvedilol)  His MAP jumped from the lot 80's to the low 90's.

I am desperately concerned about this sudden high rate.  Has anyone else experienced it?   Duke University Hospital - and I cannot say enough about the excellent care and support we have received there - tell me this is not common.  Does it mean we are experiencing additional damage to the right ventricle????  I have no experience or info to help me put this into perspective.

307 reads
Profile picture for user mike360000
Charles L.

Mon, 12/24/2018 - 3:32PM

Hi Julia,
I don't know the specifics concerning the rest about your hubby, but I have an extremely high heart rate, the the Drs never even mentioned to me. I had to point it out to them, although I would think they had noticed such high rates. Mine would be in the 140s sitting still, at times! Plus I had another problem with my heart.

Coreg went much as yours did. I ended up at about 31mg twice a day. Was taking 12.5mg tablets. Was tolerating it until I started kidney dialysis and the nephrologist wanted higher BP readings for dialysis. (My BP had always been fairly normal.) Changed me to Metoprolol and I too started becoming sick on my stomach throwing up. However I never associated my nausea to the Metoprolol. I lost about 30 lbs in the process. Finally changed to Midorine which then gave me severe bladder spasms. Cardiologist switched me to Bisoprolol and it worked better than the other 2 but still made me nauseus. I started back on the Coreg on my own and my stomach finally begin to settle down. But my cardiologist Dr became mad at me for not telling him. Sadly this whole time, since April of this past year my heart rate has rarely went below 100. Right now it runs about 102-112. 

Finally about 2 weeks ago I got the Dr to change my heart med again. This time I am on something called Corlanor. It does not affect BP. However he also kept me on Bisoprolol, but only a tiny amount, 1.25mg twice a day. I can still tell its effects but they are tolerable. The Corlanor is very good. It does not affect BP at all! Nor does it affect my stomach. I have finally put on a couple of pounds this week.

Those BETA Blockers are not the great medicines they are hyped up to be. I have now read too much on them and I understand them quite differently than from what the Drs tell us. What gets me is, I had to plead with the Drs to put me strictly on a med for high heart rate. And still they seemed to be in no hurry in reducing my heart rate further. (This was from several Drs, not one.) Sadly the damage has been done. I have felt terrible since this started. My heart has suffered much more than necessary.

Mike