How did you wean off Metoprolol?

Definitely, I’m now in possession of a $75,000 loop heart monitor implanted in my chest just above the left Atrial Chamber. Because of my 1 in a million birth defect, the top Electrophysiologist Cardiologist in the Major Hospital near me took a keen interest in my case. My heart is monitored 24/7 by the company who watches my heart thru my recorder out in Oregon with their plant in Germany. It records every heartbeat my heart produces to map out where the short circuit is, so a very rare procedure can be preformed on me when the mapping is completed. I’ll be strapped onto an operating table because the procedure is so delicate, I can not move for roughly 10 hours. Then he’ll slip a special device down thru my neck into my right Atrial Chamber and destroy every Heart Cell involved in the short circuit, one heart cell at a time. Interesting, you bet, my heart is so rare, I doubt any doctor in my state has ever performed a procedure like my doctor will get a chance to do, a once in a lifetime kind of operation. To think I never would have found out about my birth defect had I not done my research and learned I was going to the wrong cardiologist.

@anacarel2018
These types of changes are difficult, and when you have anxiety problems it seems to be even more of a challenge.

During this time when you are going off the med completely are there things you can do to occupy your mind? I'm thinking of enjoyable activities like having lunch with a friend, going to a movie, spending time in meditation, taking walks, etc. ?

Please remember that if you have symptoms that are uncomfortable you can always go to Urgent Care or to an ER and be checked out to be sure there are no heart issues that need to be addressed.

Will you post again as you go through this process and let me know how you are doing?

@becky1024

What an amazing opportunity for both you and your doctor! You must be so glad that you took the time to explore other options rather than just take meds.

Do you know long it will be before the mapping is completed?

Yes I been keeping myself busy it help I don’t have any heart issue everything was good on the echocardiogram and ekg with health anxiety ocd is like I need to know for sure I won’t have a heart attack from stopping this even though I did a low dose for 7 days as the nurse told me too

Is so exhausting I will post again in couple days thank you

I'm looking forward to hearing from you again, @anacarel2018. Take it easy!

They already know where it’s at in the right Atrial Chamber. It’s s a short circuit between the SA node (the heart’s normal pacemaker) an the AV node (which commands the right ventricle to contact) thus it pushes the chamber full of blood into the lungs to be oxygenated. My defect is a loop of rogue cells between the SA node and the AV node. When the SA node sends out a heartbeat pulse it sometimes will accidentally jump into the loop and the same pulse just keeps going round and round, triggering the command to the right ventricle to pump. Unfortunately, the chamber is not full of blood yet and that triggers my Tachycardia. That’s bad enough but the short circuit is not the only path to the AV node. The beat also goes down the normal pathway. Now I have an extremely dangerous crisis (it only happens when I’m asleep). The right ventricle is being commanded to pump by both pathways. See the problem? My heart is pumping so little blood, it will soon trigger the Tachycardia to go into A-Fib, and immediately trigger a fatal heart attack. My highest rated tachycardia was 197bpm, it’s going so fast you cannot feet a pulse and it has its own name. Pulseless Ventricular Tachycardia. It happens about one hour after I go to sleep. Lucky for me, I woke up at about the 50 minute mark and was already in PVT. The problem with the mapping of the short circuit, I haven’t gone into PVT since the recorder was placed inside me. That’s why my recorder is so expensive, it can record the the short circuit in action but the short circuit cannot be manually activated, it must happen naturally, in order to map out each heart cell involved so it cannot short out again.

Oh yeah, I’m also a Guinea Pig, actually a scientific lab rat, I mean specimen. You see, my recorder is recording every millisecond of of the day and the battery is good for 5 years. The problem is, I’m almost 79yo with an extremely weak and damaged heart. I may not live long enough to map out the short circuit but I realized something, this recorder will record every electrical pulse my SA node commands, including the very last beat of my heart as it dies. Gee, I don’t think anyone has ever had that event happen, wow, I’ll end up being a teaching tool. Just think, my heart will be dead but “The Beat Goes On!” Just had to do that if you know the oldie song!!!

I just love your attitude, @becky1024! Yes, I'm sure the "beat goes on."

I weaned off Metoprolol one month ago. I was diagnosed with a myocardial infraction when I was in the hospital with Covid. All the imaging done in the hospital showed no concerns with my heart, Size was normal, my heart was filling properly and pumping properly and there was no clots. But they left me on Metoprolol 50mg because of my heart rate was too high. After taking it three months my doctor reduced it to 25mg because my heart rate was in the 40's when resting. My doctor told me to come back in 6 weeks and he would wean me off. Much to my surprise he changed his story and said he was going to leave me on it despite all the side effects I complained about this drug. So I weaned myself off of it. I took one pill every other day for one week and then stopped. After stopping I felt much better. My blood pressure didn't change (113/70) but like you say the anxiety of not knowing is a daily issue. Any little thing becomes a big thing because of the unknown. I decided to go to a Holistic doctor to get another opinion. I have lost faith in my PCP and cardiologist. I feel they just want to keep me in the rotation and they are not concerned with me as a person.