Hi everyone,

I'm new to this group and now that I've found it, I wish I'd knew of its existence years ago! I've recently been facing a new challenge - extreme fatigue. I know it's due to my recent change in meds and am hoping folks out there have found ways to deal with it??

A little history - I've had two ablation procedures and out of the 3 foci I have, only one has been successfully addressed (the one causing the PVCs I had 24/7). However, I still have 2 more that cause runs of ventricular tachycardia. Over the years, I've been on atenolol, then on metoprolol and finally my electrophysiologist put me on sotalol, 80mg twice a day. I felt the best on the sotalol (the other two meds made me somewhat tired and didn't really control the arrythmias as well). However, I just recently ended up in the hospital again with VT's that were running around 250-300 bpm and I lost consciousness from them this time (never had them THAT bad before). Therefore, my doc upped my sotalol to 160mg twice a day. Since then, the fatigue I've been experiencing over the last month is almost intolerable. I'm becoming very depressed and just not caring much about anything - except getting better.

I've tried adding a daily regimen of vitamin D3 (I am a bit deficient), "Stress B-Complex" and Chromium (to help regulate blood sugar levels). I'm not sure it's helping, but it's only been a week since I started taking those.

My options at this point are:

1. Live with it
2. Find a way to increase my energy level
3. Go for another ablation procedure to address this focus point, which carries a fairly substantial risk due to its location.

If anyone has any suggestions on how to beat the side effect of fatigue (even with pharmaceuticals), I would be extremely grateful to hear them.

TIA

[mairegra]

MomofFour, I am dealing with a similar situation right now although I don't have VT. I have had a lot going on in my life and started to get extreme exhaustion, nausea and near passing out. I get PACs, PVCs and short runs of SVT. Have been off work for 2 weeks and getting really depressed. I was on 25mg of metoprolol and my doctor upped it to 100mg. I didn't do the 100 only 50mg. Then my cardiologist wanted to add diltiazem. Didn't do that. Just got off the phone with my concierge doctor and she wants me to stop all the meds for a few days to see if the symptoms get any better. She says all the symptoms are of not enough blood getting to the brain. So confusing! I wish I had some advise for you about the exhaustion but I don't and obviously you need the meds. Just wanted to say I can empathize with the fatigue. I have been taking vit D3 also. Don't think it does much for energy levels but my eyesight has improved and I had no colds this winter although all my colleagues did. I have ahd 2 unsuccessful ablation attempts. Hope you find some relief soon.

[jkfrench]

HiMomofFour,
The only way that I battled the fatigue from atenolol was by breaking it in quarters and taking it every 6 hours, versus all at once. It has really helped. You asked a question about xanax in another posters journal. The xanax is for anxiety over my PVCs. I had a big increase in them when I went off the BC pill. It was (and some days still does) scaring me.
I take the 1/2 of the .025mg xanax with the 1/4 of atenolol every 6 hours and it has really helped. Hopefully I can still say this a week from now!
There are some natural ways to increase energy. I had someone just tell me about organic Macca powder. This gal makes special oil blends for me. Please ask your doctor first, but there are no stimulants in this powder and I am anxious to try it as it is supposed to help with heart palps.
Good luck and thanks for posting! - Jodie