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Going off a beta blocker affecting my body battery

Last night I started a very very gradual reduction of a beta blocker dose (the reduction is happening with the support of my GP. I’ve been on metoprolol for 4 months) and the result seemed to be I had huge stress all night long and my body battery failed to recharge during the night- according to my new Garmin watch. I slept 8 hours and the only confirmation I have of this reading is that I don’t feel rested, I feel horrible. I am now facing a day with a very low battery. Anyone else have this experience?

Should I just rip the bandaid off and stop the beta blocker less gradually since it looks like a gradual reduction is going to give me several weeks of this misery? I hate the drug. Have been taking it for four months and yes it keeps my heart rate low ( I got the watch after starting it so I could keep track and the Garmin Vivosmart4 is awesome for that.) but the drug makes me so sick that I feel like I’d rather risk a heart attack than keep taking it. The fatigue and breathlessness and chest pain are all side effects apparently of this horrible drug. The paroxysmal atrial flutter it is treating - while I wait (for a year in Vancouver Island not so efficient Health care system) to see a cardiologist for curative ablation- was barely symptomatic. Of course the GP has no idea how to interpret the info I’m getting from this watch. So can’t really comment or tell me whether I can rely on it.

We (the GP and I) also wondered if the heart rate variability measurement used to measure stress and body battery reading could be an indicator of atrial flutter possibly not picked up by the heart rate function of the watch? Anybody?

0 banquo22 over 1 year ago in reply to 8746027

Speaking for my case, the phrenic nerve is a certainly a big no no and they did tell about it...post ablation he showed me on the digital mapping where on the electro mapping they do, they basically mark the nerve with a certain color to remind them not to zap in that area. And of course on the posterior wall they usually zap until the esophagus temp hits a threshold and then they back away. Those seem to be a couple of the main worries in the procedure for later complications, at least according to my doc. The current clinical trials for pulse field ablation look promising so far and eliminate some of the worst potential problems, especially the esophagus damage and the scarring re-healing and the bad electrical reforming, not to mention a more detailed hit. But it's most likely many years from regular availability. Time will tell for me... As my doc admitted, there is still so much mystery in this relatively common condition...they have a lot of stats to quote and give general guidelines for over 20 plus years of these ablation patients, but there are still so many "why's"...especially when it comes to recurrence.