Amitriptyline A Possible Cause of Irregular Heartbeats?

I head into the weekend holding onto a big F U from the Neurologist and all these symptoms. I stopped taking the pill and the chest issues subsided a little bit. All these problems have to happen right before the weekend when my primary doctor is closed, man this stinks.

After Googling Amitriptyline I find out that it is mainly prescribed to treat depression. I love how in meeting with this man for a total of 15 minutes he decides that I’m depressed. The worst thing is that he didn’t tell me that is what he thought. On the other hand I was so trusting of him that I didn’t ask a lot of questions either.

I head out Saturday am for some morning shopping with a friend and things get really interesting. I remember being in the store with her and having weird sensations come over my body. I needed to sit down because I felt like I was going to faint. My heart was giving me big thumps and the room was just odd looking.

Foolishly I don’t tell my friend what is going on. At this point I am just tired of being the sick person. I just want a normal day for once without any issues. I’m upset, angry and frustrated and I decide that I’m going to power through this.

I continue shopping in this weird fog and doing my best to act normal. When I get home I tell my husband what happened and he and my mother beg me to go to the ER. We settle for Urgent Care as I don’t feel like I am dying.

I am so grateful for this decision that day. We ended up meeting the best doctor on the planet. While my husband is out in the hall with our son I tell this doctor my story. When I’m finished he didn’t say much but said that he would be back.

Huh, what is going on? The doc was gone for a while and my husband came in the room. He could hear the doctor on the phone with another doctor and they were discussing the Amitriptyline that was prescribed to me. Now we are anxiously awaiting his return as this situation has never happened before.

The doc comes back in and tells me that he thinks my issues started with the birth control. If my body would have been given time to fix itself I probably would have been fine. My issues are with my heart and I need to see a Cardiologist right away. Due to all the over the counter meds over the past 4 months and then the Amitriptyline my body took a 1-2 punch.

He went on to say that I was a walking text book of symptoms. After consulting with his mentor I should have never been prescribed the Amitriptyline because of my symptoms that I was having in my chest. He said its basic med school knowledge that Amitriptyline amplifies heart issues and all my current symptoms point exactly to the effects of Amitriptyline and too many over the counter meds.

He told me to stop taking everything and call my regular doctor asap. I was not on many over the counter meds anymore so that was no big deal. The doctor said that if it is the Amitriptyline my symptoms should be gone within a month or so. He strongly urged me to see a Cardiologist next week to make sure that no damage has been done to the heart.

Somehow this was the best news ever. My heart could totally be screwed but at least I had some sort of answer finally. I wanted to leap into this doctors arms and kiss him. I did exactly what he said and no joke within four weeks my chest symptoms were dramatically better. I saw a Cardiologist and all checked out well.

Since this incident I have learned that doctors don’t have to go back to update their schooling. Apparently and feel free to correct me if I am wrong but once a doctor has their license they don’t have to go back to school to update, scary.

Amitriptyline is a 70’s drug that a lot of older doctors still use. Even though most doctors do not prescribe it anymore because of the risks, there are still the old timers that do. No one is really regulating what these doctors can and cannot prescribe unless the drug is pulled completely from the market. I thought this was a fun fact for all of us medical guinea pigs.

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11/09/09