Re: PACs and Ativan

[Guest guest]

Hi Trudy,

I have had pacs all my life, since I had a heart disease when I was a child.

(Rheumatic fever damaged a valve.) When I was about 18 or 20 years old, I

talked to a doctor about it, and he told me that even professional athletes

have that condition, and that I could live very well with it. Adequate

amounts of potassium and magnesium help to regulate that, as well as a

nutritional diet.

You're doin' good, girl! Good for you!

Willa

PACs and Ativan

> Awhile back I posted about having gotten physically dependent (read:

> addicted) on Ativan, which my doctor had prescribed, and slowly

> tapering it off and my hope that it was causing my afib rather than

> the afib being a fact of life. I am still hoping that once I

> complete the taper and my body has a chance to adjust, the afib will

> be (I hope...) gone or less frequent.

>

> I have tapered off to 3/8 mg a day, from 1 mg, and have hit the point

> where my heart is acting up. It doesn't seem to be afib, but rather

> sinus with frequent pacs. I have been slipping between sinus and

> sinus+pacs for about two days. What is freaking me out is that I

> can't make it stop by resting and becoming calm, or by getting thru

> it.

>

> I don't know if Ativan withdrawal is causing this or not, but it is

> similar to a time I unknowingly went cold turkey off the Ativan

> (before I knew I couldn't just stop taking it), except then I could

> stop it by resting.

>

> Has anyone had a long episode like this of " just " pacs? Any

> thoughts? Pats on the head, sigh? I am grateful that it is pacs and

> not afib.

>

> Thanks,

>

> Trudy

>

>

>

>

> Web Page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AFIBsupport

> For more information: http://www.dialsolutions.com/af

> Post message: AFIBsupport

> Subscribe: AFIBsupport-subscribe

> Unsubscribe: AFIBsupport-unsubscribe

> List owner: AFIBsupport-owner

>

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

> Hi Trudy,

>

> I have had pacs all my life, since I had a heart disease when I was

a child.

> (Rheumatic fever damaged a valve.) When I was about 18 or 20 years

old, I

> talked to a doctor about it, and he told me that even professional

athletes

> have that condition, and that I could live very well with it.

Adequate

> amounts of potassium and magnesium help to regulate that, as well

as a

> nutritional diet.

>

> You're doin' good, girl! Good for you!

>

> Willa

Hi, Willa, thanks for your reply. I have gotten used to some pacs a

day, but this is like, ten pacs a minute when it kicks in. I have

been snarfing down magnesium and calcium, and making sure I get

enough potassium in my diet. I also find B vitamins help a lot (with

the withdrawal symptoms.) The darn Ativan withdrawal effect is that

at a low enough dosage, it only takes the slightest exertion to start

my heart pac-ing (is that a verb? :-) Well, here's hoping it gets

better as my body adjusts.

How much trouble to you have with pacs yourself? Do they become this

frequent?

Thanks for the encouragement,

Trudy

[Guest guest]

Hi Willa:

I may be going through mega *Senior Moments*....I thought I had

responded to your *cold* suggestion, but the message hasn't shown up

on the Board. Oh well....at the risk of being reptititious.........

Thank you so much for that interesting information. Since on

Coumadin, I am always cold and the heating pad has been a source of

comfort to me. However, I will for sure check it out with my

doctors.

The *Pea* thingamajig is absolutely wonderful!

Ellen

(Scroll below to see original message)

> > > Awhile back I posted about having gotten physically dependent

> > (read:

> > > addicted) on Ativan, which my doctor had prescribed, and slowly

> > > tapering it off and my hope that it was causing my afib rather

than

> > > the afib being a fact of life. I am still hoping that once I

> > > complete the taper and my body has a chance to adjust, the afib

> > will

> > > be (I hope...) gone or less frequent.

> > >

> > > I have tapered off to 3/8 mg a day, from 1 mg, and have hit the

> > point

> > > where my heart is acting up. It doesn't seem to be afib, but

> > rather

> > > sinus with frequent pacs. I have been slipping between sinus

and

> > > sinus+pacs for about two days. What is freaking me out is that

I

> > > can't make it stop by resting and becoming calm, or by getting

thru

> > > it.

> > >

> > > I don't know if Ativan withdrawal is causing this or not, but

it is

> > > similar to a time I unknowingly went cold turkey off the Ativan

> > > (before I knew I couldn't just stop taking it), except then I

could

> > > stop it by resting.

> > >

> > > Has anyone had a long episode like this of " just " pacs? Any

> > > thoughts? Pats on the head, sigh? I am grateful that it is

pacs

> > and

> > > not afib.

> > >

> > > Thanks,

> > >

> > > Trudy

> >

> >

> >

> > Web Page http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AFIBsupport

> > For more information: http://www.dialsolutions.com/af

> > Post message: AFIBsupport@y...

> > Subscribe: AFIBsupport-subscribe@y...

> > Unsubscribe: AFIBsupport-unsubscribe@y...

> > List owner: AFIBsupport-owner@y...

> >

> >

> >

> >

[Guest guest]

Trudy:

I am very sympathetic to your discomfort with your PACs. When I have

them. especially in repetitive sequences, I find them to be more

uncomfortable than AF after it settles in. Mine (I'm not sure if

they are PACs or PVCs) feel like an early beat, followed by a long

space that feels like the bottom dropped out of me. When there are

many in a row, I feel terrible.

All the major anti-arrhythymics gave them to me, along with other

dreadful side effects and no relief from the AF. I want you to know

that supplements often give them to me as well, so I am careful to

try new supplements one at a time so I know which one is giving me

what I call my " irritable heart " . COQ10 did it, as well as Calcium.

Most recently I stopped and started Magnesium twice to make sure it

was what was giving me ectopic beats and, indeed, it was. I keep a

very simple medication/supplementation regime now and I haven't had

any ectopic beats (except briefly as AF starts) for quite a while

(Atenolol, digoxin, coumadin; Multi-vitamin, E, C, Garlic, Cosamin-

condroitin).

Isn't it amazing how different we all are? But I may not be the only

one who has to be careful about supplements.

I've been too busy to do the 'Just fer fun " , but I will when I return

from a trip to CA in 10 days. Its been great to read them!

Warm regards,

Lee

> Hi, Trudy. I have not had a long episode of " just " pacs, but I have

a

> fair amount of them and I don't worry about it. I have the

impression

> that the docs are not too concerned about pacs or pvcs unless they

are

> typically a precursor to AF, which seems not to be the case with

you. I

> have heard that almost everyone has some ectopic beats now and

then. So

> I say they are just pacs (no quotation marks), and I'm just happy

they

> aren't AF. Pat, pat.

[Guest guest]

> Trudy:

>

> I am very sympathetic to your discomfort with your PACs. When I

have

> them. especially in repetitive sequences, I find them to be more

> uncomfortable than AF after it settles in. Mine (I'm not sure if

> they are PACs or PVCs) feel like an early beat, followed by a long

> space that feels like the bottom dropped out of me. When there are

> many in a row, I feel terrible.

>

> All the major anti-arrhythymics gave them to me, along with other

> dreadful side effects and no relief from the AF. I want you to

know

> that supplements often give them to me as well, so I am careful to

> try new supplements one at a time so I know which one is giving me

> what I call my " irritable heart " . COQ10 did it, as well as

Calcium.

> Most recently I stopped and started Magnesium twice to make sure it

> was what was giving me ectopic beats and, indeed, it was. I keep a

> very simple medication/supplementation regime now and I haven't had

> any ectopic beats (except briefly as AF starts) for quite a while

> (Atenolol, digoxin, coumadin; Multi-vitamin, E, C, Garlic, Cosamin-

> condroitin).

>

> Isn't it amazing how different we all are? But I may not be the

only

> one who has to be careful about supplements.

>

> I've been too busy to do the 'Just fer fun " , but I will when I

return

> from a trip to CA in 10 days. Its been great to read them!

>

> Warm regards,

>

> Lee

Hi, Lee, thank you for the clue about supplements. I have been

okay today but I will certainly experiment with stopping each

supplement if this recurs. A few years ago I did try COQ10 as a

guinea pig before I told my mother about it (she had a heart

condition) and it scared me quite a bit - I remember very unusually

strong heart beats of some kind, so of course I didn't recommend it

to Mom.

In terms of the badness of frequent pacs for long intervals, I will

indelicately mention that I certainly had the Big Pee effect during

the 4-5 hour episode on Monday.

I am now thinking/hoping that it really was an Ativan withdrawal

effect. It happened on days 5-7 of a newly reduce dosage level, and

that is when withdrawal effects supposedly really kick in. I had

seen that day 5-7 thing on the first dosage level with tremoring,

etc. and then it cleared up on day 8, but the intermediate levels had

not had that happen. Yikes, sigh. Well, I am down to 3/8 mg Ativan

a day and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. A number of

the Ativan side/withdrawal effects are much less.

Thanks everyone,

trudy