Anyone Take Cardiziem?

[kluesyk]

At my appointment Tues with my Cardiologist my sitting blood pressure was 168/110....so he wants me to try Cardiziem to try and get the bp down. I have tried all beta blockers and they make me worse or drop my bp to 90/38 and I cannot function.

Just wondering if anyone has had any luck with this? I am so sensitve to meds, it scares me when I start something new.

[cgnursegirl]

My cardiologist who is pretty knowledgeable on POTS said ALL vasodilating drugs that can basically lower BP are BAD for people with POTS. We need vaso-constricting drugs. He said a low dose of a beta-blocker is okay if it is taken with something like florinef or midodrine. Never take diuretics. Florinef helped with my symptoms and raised my BP. I am now on a low dose of metoprolol (beta-blocker) along with midodrine. I also take an SSRI and a benzo. I see in your signature that you have addison's and a renal disorder. Do you take florinef for your addison's disease ? I am also wondering if you can take all the cardiac drugs due to the renal disease, wondering if the body can process the drugs ? I am a student nurse and former anatomy teacher, not an MD, so I do not know everything about cardiology. I can say that I was on cardizem at one time as well as verapamil, and they actually raised my BP and HR. Like I said earlier, my new cardiologist says all vasodilating drugs can actually make POTS worse. I hope this helps. Feel better soon !

[peregrine]

I've been taking Cardizem (generic diltiazem for me) for about 2.5 months now. In my experience it has slowed down my heart rate much of the time (although not always; it peaked at 160 today which is higher than post Cardizem), but hasn't done anything for any of the dysautonomia symptoms (fatigue, spaciness, eye blurring, brain fog, etc) and may have made them worse. Going to talk with the neurologist next month about going off of it. It doesn't seem to have lowered my BP, though.

[kluesyk]

Thanks for your replies! I decided to wait on the cardiziem. I do ok most of the time(unless I walk very far) with clonidine and midodrine together. I am so scared of new meds, I don't clear them out of my system well and have bad side effects. Maybe I will try after the holidays, I can't afford to get sicker right now.

Thanks again!

[Angelika_23]

Early on in my diagnosis, I was put on Cardizem and it raised my HR to 180 lying down and I was so dizzy and nauseated I couldn't stand. When my new EP doctor (at that time) heard about the med, he was horrified and made me stop it immediately. He said Cardizem and drugs like it are not good for people with POTS.

I am now on Metoprolol Tartrate, a tiny dose twice a day and it helps keep the HR under control.

I hope you find something that works.

[Elegiamore]

Well, the cardizem was a very bad move for me. You can see on dinet.org that they are CONTRAINDICATED but drs. keep pushing them on me, over and over, even when they claim they have read the dinet.org pill section.

I have hyper adrenaline POTs and have been unable to keep my BP low enough with beta blockers, alpha blockers, clonidine and saline IVs.

While in the hospital trying to stop coronary spasms/very high bp, an on-call cardiologist insisted he put me on Cardizem. Within two days I had tachycardia and endless throwing up. Again, it opens blood vessels in the legs and leads to swelling and pooling, which is most of us means POTS symptoms.

So I would go back to the good doctor with a list of meds from this website that WORK and a list of those that don't. Might help a tad.

Any pointers as to HOW to deal with cardiologist that are totally clueless when you are in an emergency situation?

My cardio was unavailable, my med records clearly showed I needed labetalol (trandate), atavan and saline but instead I got TWO DIURETICS and Cardizem. I had to check out with the spasms unresolved to keep them from hurting me further. Been sick for over a week cause of it.

I asked the cardio for a letter today to keep in my wallet for ER visits. Any ideas folks?

[peregrine]

1

My mom had a really severe reaction to Ativan (she forgot the name of her kids and husband). What she and my stepfather ended up doing was taping a sign up above the bed that said "NO ATIVAN" in giant letters and pointing to it any time the doctors tried to prescribe it. Do remember that you can refuse treatment! The wallet letter is a really great idea; see if you can also get your cardio to put a letter in your medical records (assuming that they share the same system with the ER you went to). Sorry that happened; it sounds terrible!

[Elegiamore]

P. S. Cardizem (sp) is CONTRAINDICATED with clonidine, which shuts a bunch of us out the first place.

[Elegiamore]

P. S. Cardizem (sp) is CONTRAINDICATED with clonidine, which shuts a bunch of us out the first place.

Thanks, Peregrine - we will see how the letter works and I DID have it posted at my cardio's hospital records also.

The idea of the Ativan sign is great but...why in the **** can't these medical pros just get it right from your chart? It's crazy!

And yes, I had a scary one with Ativan. Knocked me out with it during a hypertensive crisis. Woke up feeing somebody stroking my hair and couldn't remember WHEN and WHERE (what ER, etc.) I was in. Like a dummy, I asked for my boyfriend from the past - but it was my HUSBAND BRUSHING MY HAIR!

oops!!!!! lol!!!! Elegiamore.