Stuck on Carvedilol, and are people like their pets?

Seriously?

So I asked my primary care physician (which I will refer to from here forward as my PCP) to wean me OFF this stuff due to the side effects, and he didn't think it was a good idea.  I was on another medication like this one, only the side effects were worse, so I was switched to this one.  *sigh*  ugh.  Long story short-as-possible, this stuff beyond sucks.

You haven't felt fatigue or weakness until you've been on a beta blocker.  One is only on this stuff if one HAS to be.  Anyway... I requested to se a cardiologist.  Doctor was resistant at first, but I pushed because I don't like having my heart rhythm messed with by a PCP and prefer to be monitored by a specialist, especially due to the issues with my heart.

Mitral valve prolapse (MVP)
Moderate mitral regurge
Pulmonary hypertension, mild (secondary, and hopefully transient or will remain mild!)
Sinus bradycardia (many times my HR drops to low 50's or upper 40's for NO reason)

PCP finally gave in, and I saw the Cardio doc April 8.  He is awesome!  I'm on an event monitor for 30 days, and he ordered a new echo (for next week) to check the regurge and pressures, etc.  He seems to think that the fatigue and weakness I feel now couldn't possibly be the Carvedilol, that my dose is too low to cause this.  Well, I thought I was fatigued in the past, but compared to THIS.. I felt like a million bucks.

One of my ferrets, my little senior girl, Maui, was recently diagnosed with an AV block (which I DO NOT have).  Without explaining the pathway of the heart and how an AV block affects the heart and body, let's just say I watch what she's going through and see myself in her.  She walks a few feet to use the litter area and then collapses to rest before going back to her sleep sack.  In my case, I literally have to put what little makeup I wear on... in stages, keeping a chair in the bathroom so I can sit down to rest before standing up to continue.  I dry my hair sitting down.  This is just scratching the surface.

As I type this, I have to keep placing my arms in my lap because my muscles simply can't hold my arms up long enough to type continuously.

All in all I do what I have to do despite what I feel, and I explained this to the cardio doc. All we can do is start with an echo and go from there.  Maybe a sleep study in the near future, because that could cause bradycardia as well.

In Maui's case, her HR is dangerously slow.  A ferret's HR should be between 150 and 300 BPM, and hers hovers between 55-108.  I've taken her HR and it's been around 6-65 at rest.  The fact that I can GET it "at rest" tells you something is wrong.  Ferrets rarely stop moving when they're awake.  Cardiologists at Auburn and across the country and working on her case, because she's too tiny to put a pacemaker in her body.  A dog, yes, but she weighs 1.4 lbs.  A pediatric pacemaker is still too big.  Medications may help her feel better, but... it won't fix anything.  Her heart is enlarged... so... we'll see what the specialists can do for her.  She and I are both tired, her much more than I.

Now, as for me... the Dr. who is managing balancing my hormones is really awesome, treating the whole body, and seeing the connections between nutrients, etc., and...well...everything else.  She's ran tests for many things, sans cortisol (due to my PCP putting me on prednisone, ugh!, for inflammation in my foot), and she's found deficiencies in many areas and is now treating those.  I saw her yesterday and decided to make her my PCP.  This decision was only somewhat easy, but she made it easy by not trying to keep everything 'in house' and telling me that I needed to see an ENT for chronic (out of nowhere nosebleeds) I've been having for a few months).  My now previous PCP assumed I had a sinus infection, though I had no other symptoms, and gave me antibiotics.  didn't help.

My vitamin D3 deficiency is now being treated with far superior Vitamin D3 (which I'm deficient in), an emulsified form (there's a reason for that), and rather than 50,000 units ONCE per week I'm on 12,500 units DAILY for 30 days, and then 5,000 units daily for 30 days before checking levels again.

She discovered so many things and is still testing what she can with that BC/BS will allow.  Once our other house sells I will get the whole micronutrient panel done.

I know this was a long post, but there is good news in all of this.  Prior to the big change in my life, prior to T and to obtaining insurance, GOOD insurance.. I wouldn't have known ANY of this.  So many times things were only 'half done' by a couple of well-meaning doctors who could only do so much, and little done by a couple of doctors who shrugged off symptoms and signs.  Funny how much insurance coverage will do in the hands of the write doctors.

So I now have a new PCP and one who is getting the ball rolling in the right direction... and fast.  I get my cortisol levels checked on Monday, echo next week, 2 other sets of labs done yesterday to wait results on..... and maybe the event monitor will pick something up.

Oh, and for those of you who I have a feeling will google some things, if you do google pulmonary hypertension... don't freak out!  Secondary PH is caused by something else (hence the 'secondary'), and if that something else is addressed, the PH should resolve.  The cardio doc said I probably do have PH if it was found on my echo last year, which they did find a mild version of it, because of the HBP, moderate regurge....most likely made even worse by my way too slow HR (bradycardia).

If you read about the symptoms you will most likely find that it says if it's not treated, simple daily chores can become almost impossible... and you may recall I've posted those symptoms (just by default) off an on about myself here.  No biggie.  Could be the carvedilol, despite the docs saying my dosage is too low for that.  OR.. could be the PH.  OR it could be something else!  Right now it doesn't mean ANYTHING until my cardiologist and/or a pulmonologist tells me otherwise!  And they do a 6 minute walk test, then perhaps a right heart cath (I've only had a L heart cath) to test what the pressures ACTUALLY are, as opposed to estimating via dopplar echo.  No one has done the walk test or the RHC.  No one has said squat.  So don't consult Dr. Google and freak out and say anything to my son, etc.  Okay?  Okay.  :)

Whew.  I'm tired now. lol

Off to let my laptop charge and to scrounge up some lunch.

Toodles!

Oh, PS.... coming off carvedilol, for those wondering why I don't 'just stop taking it.':  it's a medication for heart arrhythmia and/or high blood pressure.  In my case it was for my heart arrhythmia, which was getting worse, but then my BP began to rise (not sure why).  I accidentally skipped a dose the day I saw my new cardiologist, and my BP shot up to about 178/100.  NOT good.  But the biggest reason to not even miss a dose (timing is really everything for this reason) is that it can send your heart into crazy arrhythmia.... it can cause very bad things to happen.  A person has to be carefully weaned off these medications, monitored by a doctor.  dangerous to do so by yourself.