I was non-functional on the full metoprolol dose. It was like I was underwater or trying to exist on a planet with 100x the gravity of Earth on 1 hour sleep a night. Extremely tired, and worse yet extremely sleepy/drowsy. I noticed the effects of it immediately first time I took it, which was the next day while still in the hospital for the stent (kept overnight).
After the procedure when I was finally allowed to get up I felt great, walking around the halls, checking out the cute nurses, calling friends/family, itching to get out of there. Woke up around 6 AM the next morning, had breakfast, felt great, was waiting for a friend to arrive to drive me home once they would finally discharge me, sitting in a chair reading. Nurse came and gave me metoprolol to take. With 15 minutes I felt horrible. No energy at all. Extremely sleepy. Crawled into bed, fell sound asleep. My friend arrived and I did not wake up, did not even know he was there.
That horrible drowsy sleepy feeling, and total exhaustion continued while at home. Had an appt to see my PCP the next day and I do not even know how I got there (drove myself). At one point I remember being confused while driving in, did not know what road I was on. Getting to the Dr office I could not walk up the steps to the 2nd floor like I usually do, had to take the elevator.
During the appt I asked about why I was so damn tired & sleepy. Dr blew it off as just me needing to get some rest for a few days. Originally the plan was for me to have him sign paperwork that day so I could go back to work but that was put on hold because of my utter exhaustion (also my insertion site was starting to swell up) and he told me to come back the following Monday for a reassessment. At the end of the appt I asked him to give me the needed Lovenox shot which he did with me lying down on the table. I was unable to get up and asked if I could lie there a few minute to try to recover. He said no prob and left the room. I fell asleep.
At home all week I found I could do nothing other than lie in bed, watch TV, and fall asleep constantly. Trying to do anything, like needing to do grocery shopping, required massive amounts of sheer willpower to accomplish.
Going back the following week I still felt the same. Asked why I was so horribly tired (did the stent go wrong? is it the meds - plavix & metoprolol?). Also I was having the worst nightmares of my life every night, extremely intense, very very vivid horrible dreams (I later learned this is a common side effect of metoprolol, in addition to the drowsiness etc). Dr gave me a lecture that I just needed to get out of bed and exercise, go for walks. I tried that when I got home and could not walk 2 blocks, had to sit down on the curb to try to regain strength to walk back, then impossible to keep my eyes open when I got home.
Got a phone call that afternoon from the Dr saying that he discussed my tiredness with the cariologist who suggested moving the dosage of metoprolol to evening from morning. That helped a little as I would get some energy back around dinnertime but still felt awful.
Seeing the cardiologist a few days later I was again extremely tired and difficult for me to understand what he was saying about some things, had to write them down. I think he finally at least recognized what the medicine was doing to me and told me to cut the pills in half and only take that reduced dose. That helped immediately but I still did not feel like the old me in various ways. Thankfully was able to ween/get off it entirely about a month later. For whatever reason that stuff affects my body horribly,.
As far as Lovenox goes, yes I alternated shots on the sides of my belly. Both sides, everywhere was entirely bruised beyond anything I have ever seen. There was nowhere for me to continue injecting it that was not a huge bruise already. I wonder if they were having me dose too high. Also dosing myself was not ideal as I am not great at the technique, but had same bruising from injections done in hospital by nurses also from PCP above.
I got Lovenox while in the hospital after my open heart surgery b4 going on warfarin and I do not remember anything like that, other than the shots hurt.
