New Member

Lon · Oct 16, 2005

Hi all, I am new to this forum. October 31st will be my 3 year anniversary, I had my mitral and aortic valves replaced with St. Jude mechanical valves at Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills CA. I was 44 at the time and never had a heart problem before so I was quite shocked when the doctor told us. Since my surgery my pulse has been quite high, is this common for mechanical valves. There seems to be a lot of well informed people here. Until I found this forum I had not personally known anyone with my condition. I look forward to visiting here a lot.

Karlynn · Oct 16, 2005

Welcome Lon!

It's not unusual for heart rate to be an issue after valve replacement. Are you taking anything to keep your heart rate down?

I am on metoprolol (Toprol) 50 mg 2x/day for my heart rate. I've been on it since my St. Jude mitral was installed almost 14 years ago.

On metoprolol and working out 3 - 4 days a week, my rate is about 72. Illness and stress will push it up some and if, for some dumb reason, I've skipped more than one dose, it will start to go up a bit.

Lon · Oct 16, 2005

I was on toprol but it was messing with my concentration and making me feel as if I were drunk. I talked my doctor into getting off of it to see if I feel better without it. I feel a lot better without it but have been lazy lately with exercising. Now my pulse is going up again.

Karlynn · Oct 16, 2005

Lon said:
I was on toprol but it was messing with my concentration and making me feel as if I were drunk. I talked my doctor into getting off of it to see if I feel better without it. I feel a lot better without it but have been lazy lately with exercising. Now my pulse is going up again.

Tsk tsk tsk

Exercise (cleared by your doctor) should help bring it down. I know some people do have an issue w/ toprol. I'm sure others will be along to tell you what they take for a fast rate.

ALCapshaw2 · Oct 16, 2005

You didn't say what dose of Toprol you were on. At 100 mg, I felt pretty 'sluggish' so my cardio had me cut back by 50% for two weeks. MUCH BETTER. Then he cut me by 50% for another two weeks. Still worked. After stopping completely, I developed irregular heartbeats so he had me go back to 25 mg which worked quite well for 2 or 3 years.

'AL Capshaw'

p.s. It is NOT good to go 'cold turkey' from any Beta Blocker since there is a good chance you can have 'rebound effects'.