jbrian00

I sometimes get awakened in the middle of the night with a forceful pounding heartbeat and shortness of breath and think it's because my heart rate dipped a little too low and my body was compensating for that. I caught it a couple times below 48bpm. I sleep with my head elevated which I think helps some. Perhaps you may want to consider that if it happens a lot or find out what your heart rate is doing. James

Yes I get these wierd feelings in my head. Very hard to describe. Not really a pain but just a feeling like I'm slightly drunk all the time or living in a dream world. Also get some issues with my eyes focusing too. It's almost like a migraine with little pain (if that makes any sense). For me my symptoms are worse at night. I will notice a slowing of my heart at night as well, so I wonder if there's any correlation. It's like my heart goes into "slow mode". I will also feel much worse in my head when I have an adrenaline surge which will stay with me for the rest of the day. But yeah I get all kinds of wierd head feelings so you are definitely not alone. Nothing has determined that I have a hypoglycemic problem like someone mentioned above, although I don't know if you have to have a blood test specifically for that or if it would show up on a standard blood test. Cymbalta helped me for a while with this but lately has gotten worse. Hopefully you'll figure out something that helps and let us all know. Best of luck, James

computer monitors can lead to eyestrain because of the distance your eyes have to focus at, and the nature of the pixelated images on the screen. Google computer vision syndrome to find out the details. Computer glasses can help with this. Other than that the blue light waves emitted from a computer screen or tv can strain the eyes. On top of that, it could be you are sensitive to the EMF (electromagnetic frequency) radiation given off my the monitor.

My hr rate is higher during the day but around nighttime it gets much lower, sometimes too low for comfort, especially when lying in bed. I talked to my PCP, who recently put me on Toprol XL, about my heart rate going so low during the night that I'll wake up with a pounding heart, and when I check my hr it will be 49bpm (at the time I check...probably lower to trigger the pounding). My doc said not to worry that his hr goes down to 43 while sleeping. But I don't see how I shouldn't worry if I'm being woken up with these pounding beats. James

My hearts rates were about 120 sitting and 150 standing during my episode. I had my heart tested back in 2005 and it showed the same t-wave inversions. I had tachycardia then too, which they called a panic attack. I remember back in high school (I'm 25 years old now), my ekgs for my physical came back abnormal and saw a cardiologist who performed a stress test and confirmed everything was ok. And that was years before my POTS symptoms started. So I hope they are just "normal for me". A cardiologist here is finally having me wear a 48 hour holter and had an echo yesterday. So hopefully everything will check back ok again. By the way after my episode I started toprol (12.5mg in the morning), and haven't had a tachy surge like that since. So I'm feeling a little better which it. My PCP said 12.5mg probably wouldn't do any good, but what does he know lol? Seems to be making a difference. James

Propranolol is a non-selective beta blocker, which means it targets Beta-1 receptors in the heart, as well as Beta-2 receptors in the lungs. The blocking of Beta-2 receptors in the lungs can create shortness of breath and asthma problems worse. There are selective beta-blockers which primarily target Beta-1 receptors located in the heart, and might work better if you has asthma for breathing problems. One such is metoprolol (aka Toprol) that many here take to help control heart rate caused by adrenaline surges. I would ask your doctor about selective vs non-selective beta blockers to determine which one might work best for you. James

I felt so bad yesterday with high heart rate and couldn't settle down, developed a headache and hands started tingling...so I ended up going to the ER. They mentioned I had a slight abnormality on my ekg. Apparently 4 out of every 10 t-waves were inverted. Also the first blood sample they drew was borderline high on some enzyme test (possibly to test for heart attack?), so they drew again and second test came back normal. Just wondering if anyone else has had slighly abnormal ekgs? I'm 25 years male! Thanks, James

Hello, I posted a while back about trying to go off of Cymbalta and then getting extreme adrenaline rushes. Well I went back on 30mg Cymbalta and Clonazepam. Several months ago before I went off meds I was doing pretty good on just Cymbalta 30mg. So since I was still having neuro symptoms and headaches, I decided to try tapering clonazepam in hopes that I will get back to the state I was in earlier this year. When I started Cymbalta back up, I noticed an instant improvement in heart rate and didn't get those adrenaline surges any more. However, last thursday I seemed to have taken a turn for the worse. My heart rate was ok before then, but on Thursday it started shooting into high gear and it doesn't appear to be settling down. I'm still on clonazepam but at a lower dose. This started almost 2 weeks after tapering only a pittance of clonazepam. So I don't know if the clonazepam tapering has caught up and that's causing a flare up or if Cymbalta is no longer helping me like it did earlier this year. Has that ever happened to anyone? I haven't been on it for very long. I'm tempted to go back to my starting dose of clonazepam and pray for relief. My doc gave me an rx for 50mg Toprol (metroprolol) in case this happened but I'm kinda afraid to take it at that dose. I want to start really low and work up if I try a bb. So I don't know if I should try my bb at like a 1/4 of the 50mg tablet or if I should try a different SSRI or what? Is anybody on metroprolol that can offer me a good low starting value and if that is helpful for adrenaline surges? Thanks so much I'm really worried here. James

I don't take a beta blocker anymore...in fact only took one about 3 years ago and caused incredible fatigue. I do have a bb rx on standby from my PCP in case I need one. From my understanding, manaomine is the enzyme that breaks down serotonin. I have read in POTS that the Norepinephrine transporter protein deficiency could be a culprit. In that case I beleive an SNRI is beneficial cause it basically overrides the NET protein. But in short, I don't have a clue as to what is happening with me. I'm not sure there's any way to know. All I know is that I don't have the heart surges when I'm on Cymbalta, and I do when I'm not. I hope you find something that works to calm you down. James

valsalva maneuvers/coughing/sneezing sends my heart rate higher, but since I've only had to blow my nose like once in the past year or so, I can't attest to this happening while blowing nose.

I have had these tachy episodes myself...fast heart rate, uncontrollable shaking, shortness of breath, lightheadedness...the works. They first happened when I tried to go off of the antidepressant I was on, Cymbalta. While the first attack happened when I was on the treadmill (and scared me so much to call 911 and end up in the ER), it then started happening even just sitting still on the couch relaxing (or trying to, at least). My heart rate hasn't quite gone up to 200+ (thank god)...it maxed out at around 160bpm. Of course I was anxious the first couple times (which didn't help matters), but found out that the surges only last approximately 30 minutes or so, so I learned to let my heart run it's course, and know that it will settle down after a while. I had to go back on Cymbalta because of this and some neurological symptoms. I was at the point where I knew if I moved at all, just to even get up and stand up, my heart would race, so I just sat on the couch most the day afraid to move. Going back on Cymbalta has really helped out with these heart surges...I don't get them much anymore, thankfully. So may I ask have you tried an SSRI/SNRI? The difference was like day and night going off Cymbalta, making my symptoms so much worse, and going back on made a huge difference too, so evidently it is helping me cope. Hope you find relief with something, James

I've felt my heart beating in my throat during my really bad tachy surges. How high does your heart rate get when it happens?

You say this chest pain is occurring in the middle of the night...do you know what your heart rate is doing at the time? Sometimes I'll have some chest pain in relation to a low heart rate (below 60bpm for me) if I'm lying down. I have come up with 2 tricks to try and avoid this chest pain: 1. Get up out of bed really slowly. I first prop the upper half of my body up by my elbows for about 30 secs...this seems to get your body into thinking you're about ready to get up, so you don't suddenly shock your body by jumping right up too quickly. Then I sit up on my bed for about a min, and by then I can usually get up with no problem. I do the same thing getting into bed...I prop myself up on my shoulders or pillows for about a min then I lay myself down. If I simply lay down right away, my heart will feel wierd as if it hasn't caught up to the fact I'm lying down, and will become confused. 2. I also sleep with the upper half of my body propped up on 3 pillows. Lying down flat seems to trigger chest pain for me, particularly with a low heart rate. Propping up or raising the head of the bed appears to help. Hope you find something to help with these attacks, cause I know chest pain can be a *****. Also, there are some supplements you could try out if you feel comfortable with it. Omega 3 fish oil might help along with the herb hawthorne. I'd first try the fish oil though before trying hawthorne. It's always best to ask your doc, but I've found the typical doc knows nothing about natural supplements/herbs.

Just wondering, are you on any meds right now?

I was initially placed on 8mg of Klonopin (2mg 4x a day...yeah a crapload ) because my initial crash was a panic attack and my psych was treating me for panic disorder. Not long after that dose I started titrating down cause I read the meds could be addicting and they were only intended for about a month of use until my cymbalta kicked in. Anyway, it took me a good 6 months or so to taper down to nothing, and I didn't notice any bad withdrawal symptoms. Multiple docs have explained that the meds should NOT be used for long term (i.e. years) cause your body does build a tolerance and you're forced to take more and more. Also, my advice (and I've come of klonopin twice already) is to take it slow and make yourself a withdrawal schedule. I used http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm#s5 as a guide for developing my taper schedule. I know they have you substituting Ativan, but I did not do that. They have some helpful tips for anyway trying to come off of benzos or antidepressants. Get yourself a pill cutter and I've found that the lowest decrease possible to cut, given the size of the Klonopin tablets, is about 1/8 of a tablet. If you'd like help designing a schedule I could email you the excel schedule I made up that I will use for tapering klonopin my third time. FYI I believe docs in general have you taper meds a bit too quickly. Most aren't even aware of discontinuation syndrome. I did have severe symptoms upon cessation of Cymbalta, but didn't know if it was POTS or withdrawal. I've been so medicated I don't know what POTS symptoms are without meds. If what I was experiencing was POTS, I was pretty much disabled. Hope this helps, James