Benadryl Caused Brady And Irregular Beats

[LindaJoy]

Okay, I'm a mess. In the hospital yet again. Had to have major surgery two months ago after I got pancreatitis and infection from an ERCP. Was in the hospital for seven weeks, nearly died twice. Anyway, took Benadryl last night, liquid, and went into bradycardia and irregular beats. BP also went up. After a short time, it went away.

Can POTS cause this reaction from a usually tolerable medication?

Thanks.

Lindajoy

[juliegee]

Okay, I'm a mess. In the hospital yet again. Had to have major surgery two months ago after I got pancreatitis and infection from an ERCP. Was in the hospital for seven weeks, nearly died twice. Anyway, took Benadryl last night, liquid, and went into bradycardia and irregular beats. BP also went up. After a short time, it went away.

Can POTS cause this reaction from a usually tolerable medication?

Thanks.

Lindajoy

Hi LindaJoy-

Sorry to hear that you're having such a rough time. I've been there with the ERCP, severe pancreatitis- bad scene I was hospitalized for weeks as well- indescribable pain!

I can't really answer your question. i just wanted to let you know that I also had an awful reaction to an injection of benadryl one time. It paralyzed me, but didn't help my symptoms. I was still having crazy tachy, but could barely verbalize it. I REFUSE benadryl injections now & use prescription H-1's that I tolerate well. I'd prefer epi to that.

Makes me think that you're not treating your MCAD if your resorting to benadryl....Are you still treating the Addison's?

Hope you're feeling better soon.

Hugs-

Julie

[gackedo]

I just got out of the hospital yesterday after having my 5th ERCP and 3rd sphincterotomy. I have gotten mild pancreatitis after each ERCP. Pancreatitis is a recognized but uncommon complication of ERCP. What's up with several of us having this complication? I'm curious what health problems caused everyone to require an ERCP.

For myself, I have had a sphincter of oddi dysfunction for at least 20 years. Originally, when I started having pain, my doctor thought i was having a nonfunctioning gallbladder so I had it removed. After my surgery I started having intermittent severe pain (feels like someone is reaching under my rib cage and ripping out organs-the worse pain I could ever imagine). As it turns out, the sphincter that allows bile to drain in the small intestines goes into spasm and causes pain. There are some medications you can use to cause the sphincter to relax but they never worked for me. So every few years I have to have that sphincter cut to allow the bile to drain.

I also have issue with other sphincters in my body. The sphincter between my esophagus and stomach don't work so I have really bad reflux. And the sphincter between my bladder and my urethral also doesn't work well so I get urinary retention. I have tried to get my autonomic specialist to believe that these are all related to my autonomic dysfunction but he will not commit to that idea.

[juliegee]

I just got out of the hospital yesterday after having my 5th ERCP and 3rd sphincterotomy. I have gotten mild pancreatitis after each ERCP. Pancreatitis is a recognized but uncommon complication of ERCP. What's up with several of us having this complication? I'm curious what health problems caused everyone to require an ERCP.

For myself, I have had a sphincter of oddi dysfunction for at least 20 years. Originally, when I started having pain, my doctor thought i was having a nonfunctioning gallbladder so I had it removed. After my surgery I started having intermittent severe pain (feels like someone is reaching under my rib cage and ripping out organs-the worse pain I could ever imagine). As it turns out, the sphincter that allows bile to drain in the small intestines goes into spasm and causes pain. There are some medications you can use to cause the sphincter to relax but they never worked for me. So every few years I have to have that sphincter cut to allow the bile to drain.

I also have issue with other sphincters in my body. The sphincter between my esophagus and stomach don't work so I have really bad reflux. And the sphincter between my bladder and my urethral also doesn't work well so I get urinary retention. I have tried to get my autonomic specialist to believe that these are all related to my autonomic dysfunction but he will not commit to that idea.

Sorry to hear that you've just dealt with this all well. My guess is that you have some connective tissue disorder causing this unusual tightening of sphincters. I know that we tend to think of extremely relaxed muscles, tissues, ligaments, blood vessels being involved in connective tissue disorders, BUT based on something that Dr. Rowe at Hopkins said, I can't help but wonder if there is another subset with extremely tight connective tissues. During our first evaluation, he tried to ascertain which camp Mack fell into- the hypermobile OR the super-tight. Mack has always been extremely tight, unable to touch his toes when he bends over no matter how hard he stretches, etc. Wonder if this spills over to all connective tissues???

My pancreatitis was VERY severe, life threatening. Like you, I was told that there was only a 1-2% chance of developing pancreatitis I had severe pain at the bottom of my rib cage in the center that often radiated to between my shoulder blades. It was worse after I tried to eat or drink anything. My liver enzymes were very high & sphincter of oddi was suspected- hence the ERCP. My sphincter was found to be fine, but then I developed the pancreatitis... I lived with that pain, in varying degrees, sometimes incapacitating for 20 years. I finally had my gallbladder out several years ago. In retrospect, it was obviously the culprit from way back, no HIDA scan then. It was wrapped in layers of adhesions and attached to my liver. So many years of pain....

I suspect that you are on to something with your theory that this is all related to your dysautonomia via a connective tissue disorder. Let me know if you find some literature relating to this.

All the best-

Julie