I'm 75. Five minutes of activity and I'm feeling pain in both upper trapezius muscles (those running down from the back of the neck toward each shoulder). Twenty minutes pushing a cart in a supermarket and I can barely hold my head up: I'm lucky the pain/cramping slowly disappears while seating in my car's bucket seat. Also, if I get up from a seat quickly, I sometimes feel lightheaded for about 15 seconds.
I'm taking Eliquis to thin blood, Carvedilol to keep my heart slow, and Lasix as a diuretic and some other meds to address potassium (now back to normal level), iron, and type-II diabetes.
I was diagnosed with heart A-fib in mid-Dec. 2025, weak heart atriums pumping 50% of the normal blood amount at rest (30% of max.). I also developed extreme weakness in my muscles after losing 30 lb in a year, then losing 30 more in a month due to Lasix with little exercise.
Strength physical therapy began in Feb. and with be completed May 7th. My legs and arms regained strength - I can stand up from sitting on a floor without needing anything vertical to help me stand.
The A-fib was gone by the end of Dec. with normal sinus rhythm in the heart ever since.
Another Cardiac Echo Test on Mar. 24th showed my heart atriums are pumping 75% of the normal blood amount at rest (40-45 of max when 50% would be considered ok and 60% is normal).
My cardiologist cut the Lasix in half but doesn't want to reduce the other meds ("why mess with success") until he evaluates my next Cardiac Echo test on Aug. 19th.
But the trapezius muscles still hurt, even after almost 2 months of PT that exercises and massages them, when I'm starting coffee and nuking breakfast in the morning, picking up objects, etc. So I'm investigating the effects of the meds,