Adrenal Surges Without Tachycardia?

[Canadiangirl73]

Hello all, For some odd reason my computer won't allow me to use the "enter" button so I can't brake my text into different paragraphs. So I was wondering if it's possible to have adrenal surges without tachycardia. I've been in a relapse for a while now and been having a huge flare-up since Saturday. I was trimming the Christmas tree on that day and wasn't wearing any compression garments, which I usually always do, and my HR really spiked. I've been feeling really lousy since and a new kind of adrenal surge started Sunday at the wee hours of the morning. I've been having them like clockwork every night since. In the past when I used to get them, two things were different: I had tachycardia and didn't have "weird beats" (my heart was beating funny when I woke up Monday morning). So when I wake up, I feel startled, sense of impending doom, my palms are clammy, I have terrible chest pressure in the sternal area (feels like someone is inflating an iron balloon under my sternum) and my BP is really high (139/119). What is also odd is that I'm brady before I go to bed (high 40s) so I wonder if my HR doesn't drop any lower while I'm sleeping and my body is trying to correct this. Also, since my baseline HR is so low maybe that's why I don't get the tachycardia I usually get when those happen? Also, they happen between 3 and 4 am and then again around 6 am. Any thoughts?

[peregrine]

Are you on any meds that might be involved (e.g. ones that decrease tachycardia but don't treat other things)? I get adrenaline surges without tachycardia, but in my case it's due to the beta blocker and clonidine (and I get them less with clonidine) generally slowing my tachycardia.

[khaarina]

I'm thinking along the same lines as peregrine. I get adrenal symptoms w/o tachy, but only since I have been on Midodrine, which lowers my heart rate significantly. Lately I've been having chest pressure, palps, hot flashes, irritability, chest pain, and left arm pain, so I expected my heart rate to be up, but nope, it stayed right around 70. Before the Midodrine, these symptoms usually coincided with tachy.

[Canadiangirl73]

Thank you for your answers! It makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. The last time I had severe tachycardia in the middle of the night (166) was back in July, right before I bumped up my dose of Metoprolol. Also, I know take my last dose as late as I possibly can before going to bed. If only the BB could get rid of the other symptoms... I know lorazepam doesn't help since I tried in the past. They're just very frequent lately. Every half hour last night. I'm exhausted but hopeful they will stop. The more upright I am during the day, the more acute the surges are at night, so I think I just have to my adrenaline built up in my system.

[peregrine]

Have you considered something like clonidine? I don't know your exact situation, but I found it helpful when beta blockers only helped somewhat/only got rid of the tachycardia and not the adrenaline.

[brethor9]

I have the exact same waking pattern as you with my adrenal surges even without tachycardia...its one of my worst symptoms. I am going through a bad flare up right now in fact. Apparently histamine and cortisol levels can be a contributing factor; I have found that my MCAS regime is helping a bit with this. I know I have very high catecholamines as proven on my TTT so I just chalk it up to that....believe it or not sometimes when that happens I will have half a cup of coffee or take a zantac and it settles down. Also are you drinking enough fluids before bed? you could be dehydrated