High resting heart rate

[Chuck C]

I am 1 week post MAVR and my rate has gone up from 80s (with tissue AVR), to 96-103 ish. Hospital doctors doubled my bisoprolol from 2.5 pre-op to 5mg and wouldn’t listen to me about giving it time to heal and settle down. I would rather have allowed my heart time to adjust to the new valve with a normal exercise routine (not sitting idle in a ward), and reviewed the dose in a few weeks, but they wouldn’t listen. Am I wrong to be considering switching back to 2.5mg and monitoring it myself, this can’t be dangerous right? At 30, I just don’t want to be developing more drug dependencies if I can avoid it, and some of advertised risks (heart failure) of bisoprolol worry me.

Hi James and welcome to the forum.

I would recommend listening to your medical team and taking the increased bisoprolol which they are recommending to control your heart rate. You are only one week out from surgery and things are fragile for awile. If they feel that your heart rate is too high and needs to be brought down, I would follow their guidance. This medication is also taken to help keep your blood pressure under control. You have plenty of time to reduce the dosage over the next 6 months, with the guidance of your team, as your heart adapts to the new situation. Being on a beta blocker for a few weeks or months will not create a dependency. I was on one for a few months after my surgery and it was gradually reduced as my body adapted until it was no longer needed and I went off of it completely. I believe this occured for me about at the 3 month point.

Best of luck and please keep us posted on your recovery.

 

[Eva]

I would not go against drs’ recommendations when you’re only 1 week post surgery!

 

[AZATADINE]

I can only talk about my own experience but in my case, I was up around 100 bpm for a week or so post op and was on 2.5mg Bisoprolol once daily. After about a week my heart rate dropped to around 55 to 60 bpm. I did notice it dropping below 50 bpm at night and occasionally felt a bit light headed when I'd stand up so the surgeon dropped it to 1.25 mg per day after 6 weeks. After 4 months, my cardiologist took me off it altogether and my resting heart rate now is mid 60's (5 months post op) so I wouldn't panic too much about medication at your point so early post op.