Staying the Course -- March 2, 2021

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Superbob

Steely Resolve!
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 21, 2005
Messages
8,481
Location
Coastal Carolina
Hello, all. No snow here for sure, but we do have roller-coaster weather -- high 80 one day, 50 the next. And a lot of rain so far in 2021, with the result that several rivers are still in flood stage a week later.

Had thought about taking a break this week, 'cause don't have anything new to add, but starting a week's thread anyway in case others want to weigh in. Good to see Steve back with us last week.

I did complete the Low Country Heart Walk last weekend. And got this in my mailbox as a reward (along with a t-shirt to follow), with the headline as indicated below. Nice. mail.jpeg
mail.jpeg
 
Nice work on the walk. We seem to have a lot of new folks on the forum of late. Hope they stumble across this little corner of the forum.

Did my workout this evening after my metoprolol. Never realized the impact that had. Normally I’ll run or bike either before my morning drugs or around lunch break after they’ve been adequately digested. I was busy today so I took my evening metoprolol with dinner then rode after dinner. I rode hard, or so I thought. Normally my heart rate averaged around 140 +/-. I was down around 115 this evening. Good grief.
 
And 119 today. Running normally has me around 150 and I was at 130 Monday, now that I think about it. Think I’ll fire up the old blood pressure machine.

Resting pulse isn’t dropping crazy low at night or anything and not many irregular beats. Weird.
 
Superman - you've learned the same lesson I did. Metoprolol is not good for exercise. Even after having my dosage reduced twice (started out at 100 mg/day, then down to 50, then finally 25 mg/day), I still struggle with high-effort cardio work and can no longer run much at all. Like you, I used to have a peak heart rate (pre-surgery) of up to 160-165 BPM. (I even made them set up my pacemaker so that it allows HR up to 160 BPM). That's history, won't be back. Now, with the 25 mg/day dosage, I can't seem to get my heart rate up over about 140-145 BPM, regardless of time of day vs. time of meds. I just can't. If I am on an indoor track, I can maybe walk 2 laps and jog one, but I can't sustain jogging. I can "power-walk" at a 15 min/mile pace for miles at a time, just can't go fast. While I was taking the higher dosage of metoprolol, I described it as "trying to run while dragging a sled full of boulders."

Other than that, we are still muddling along. Almost all of the snow had melted, and we hope that we don't get any more large accumulations. I have had back and shoulder trouble for two weeks since the last dump of wet heavy snow hit. We had to shovel a lot of that one by hand because it was so heavy and the piles of snow were so high that the snow blower couldn't toss the stuff on top of what was already there.

I'm counting days until my first Covid vaccine shot. I was finally able to get scheduled through one of the teaching hospitals in the area - one where I went to see a heart surgeon 10 years ago. They are focusing on their patients before the general public, but they were able to re-activate my patient record from that long ago visit. With the mess that the vaccine roll-out is here in Chicago, I'm thankful for that. My wife was able to get an appointment for the J&J vaccine (once and done) through a brand new center that the state is opening in the next few days. I tried that site, but within 3 minutes the first 15 or 20,000 appointments were booked! I guess I'm happier that she got one instead of me, as I already have the two-shot vaccine scheduled to start next week.

We don't have weather like SB, but yesterday it did hit the upper 50's. Not today, though. Just low 40's - but that is not out of character for the area at this time of year. I'm just biding my time until we can be outside more -- I'm getting cabin fever.

Skeptic - I won't write about the cluster-*$^( that is Covid vaccine distribution in Illinois and Chicago. Every time I write about it, I become furious and I start getting moderators on my back about how hot I get. It is a first class mess, but hopefully DW and I will soon be sorted out on it. My daughter is in MA, and she has already gotten both shots as she works in healthcare.
 
> I won't write about the cluster-*$^( that is Covid vaccine distribution in Illinois and Chicago. Every time I write about it, I become furious

I know what you mean, Steve. Preserving my mental health was one reason i spent the $$$ and traveled 90 miles to get my shot. The local distribution of the vaccine in Philadelphia is criminally negligent and maddening.
 
Steve,

Ive seen other posts about metoprolol that have mentioned that issue, but I’ve been on it for over 10 years same dose and never a problem. Just the last few workouts. BP is fairly normal - I’m not sure.
 
Superman - you say "the same dose." How much are you taking? Maybe your need has decreased? Are all other parameters within normal ranges, like heart rate range, BP, etc?
 

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