@dalebout123 I would like to add to this discussion my experience with cutting metoprolol out of my life

About two years ago, I had three stents put in and I was placed on a blood thinner, Plavix, and metoprolol to control my heart rate. Soon after starting Plavix, I got the characteristic purple bruises on my wrists, which always really embarrassed me. And with the metoprolol, I suffered the side effects of a foggy brain and feeling there was always a headwind pushing me back, and whenever I would hike up hills, immediately my legs felt like lead. I hated this feeling, but accepted it as a guard against a stroke, which would be really devastating.

After two years of living with an anchor around my neck, I finally got to talk to a electro physiologist that would listen to me

He took me off the Plavix and put me onto Eliquis, which has pretty much eliminated the bruising on my hands and he switched me from the long lasting metoprolol to a fast acting version, metoprolol tartrate, with the instructions that if I experienced Afib, I should take the fast acting metoprolol until I reached a regular rhythm

I basically stopped taking the metoprolol, and my heart rate is finally responding to my exercise demands and I have been feeling really great. Hiking is now a pleasure and I look forward to my physical activities

I have experienced arhythms twice since stoping the long lasting metoprolol and taking the fast acting metoprolol had brought me back to a regular rhythm quickly

I feel so much better and I am basically off of metoprolol except when I feel that I need it

I am 80 years old and feel that I have my life back