Cracked a molar in January. Got a root canal/temporary crown, then the permanent about two weeks later. (What’s more debt? *cue hysterical, manic laughter*)
Meanwhile, I had a cough start a few days after the root canal, and it wouldn’t go away. Got worse. Wheezing. Short of breath. Ended up in urgent care twice. Steroids and antibiotics thrown at it didn’t take care of it. X-ray showed no pneumonia. And it was knocking me on my ass. I would have to sit down every few minutes to catch my breath and I had zero energy. Worse than usual.
The second urgent care trip was this past Sunday (I’d coughed so hard I hurt a rib the night before, and was coughing so hard, so short of breath, and my O2 level would drop to 92 while walking and I nearly passed out) and she gave me an inhaler, along with more meds.
In the process of looking up the inhaler (never used one before but my dad used and the Bard does) I looked up my other meds to check for interactions…
Lo and behold, guess what some of the side effects of metoprolol tartrate (a med I’ve been on for years) are?
Coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, blurry vision…
And so forth.
Of the top 25 “bad” side effects, I now have about 20 of them.
F.M.L.
I’ve been on it for controlling racing pulse, palpitations, near syncope, and other symptoms. I have low blood pressure, and the issues the cardiologist prescribed it for were, we thought, triggered by a bad fibro flare I’d had that lasted a month, made me so nauseous from pain I couldn’t eat, and I dropped 30 pounds in the space of four weeks or so. He thought maybe that messed up my body’s wiring somehow, because tests and wearing a holter monitor for a month didn’t reveal anything except that, occasionally, my heart would beat a little sooner than it should.
Whatever. I know in the beginning I looked up the med and it just honestly fell out of my head that those other side effects where there.
I stopped taking the metoprolol Sunday night, haven’t had any since (it’s now Wednesday morning as I write this).
No shit, I have awakened the past three mornings full of energy and mental clarity I haven’t felt in MONTHS. And since I’ve been posting about it on Facebook, others have said they had similar experiences on that beta blocker and similar ones. I also found countless anecdotes from people who had to switch beta blockers because of the same. Fucking. Symptoms.
I’ve gotten more done in the past three days, no shit, than I have in the past three MONTHS. And I have energy. I’d forgotten what that feels like. And I’ve hardly used any OTC cough meds, whereas before I was hitting them up all the time.
I have a telehealth appointment this morning with my GP to discuss a replacement med. (I should note I’ve had ZERO reoccurrence of the cardiac symptoms since stopping the metoprolol, so I’m going to ask if we can hold off starting me on a new one immediately. I want to finish the prednisone and cough meds I got on Sunday (and the prescribed run with the inhaler) and see if I’m okay. Then we can try another one and if the cough comes back, we’ll know it’s that. If the cough still doesn’t completely resolve, we can move to pulmonary studies and a lung CT scan to try to get to the bottom of this.
But, honestly? I truly believe after everything I’m reading and hearing that this is the issue. Looking back, I can see where these negative side effects have been happening, and getting worse over time, but remember I have fibromyalgia, and now long covid, so I attributed things to those.
So here’s a reminder: check your meds’ side effects on the regular. It’s advice I damned well know (from my own experience in the past with Cymbalta and Lyrica) and I grew complacent. Keep track of your symptoms. I’ve had a periodic cough off and on for months, but nothing serious, and I always thought it was due to having been outside during high-allergen times, or because I was dusting or whatever. I never put together it was due to the meds.
The more you learn, amirite? LOL
I’m busy on Bleacke Shifters 9, back on track now (hopefully) to finish this edit so I can release it. I keep tweaking things in book 10, so I have to go back and adjust book 9. And I realized I never finished the covers, so I’ll have those coming soon, too. If you’re one of my Patreon subscribers, I’ve posted the first chapter of A Bleacke Outlook (Bleacke Shifters 9) there, as well as the next installment in my FemDom story, Cabron.
And if you missed it, you can pre-order Bleacke Shifters 9 & 10 at a lower price over on my online store. (It comes with a placeholder file now, but once I upload the final version you’ll be able to download it from there.)
Something else I’m doing is posting my backlist of Lesli Richardson books over on the serial reading app, Radish. If you’ve already purchased the books, or buy my books direct from me or a retail sight, do NOT spend coins on them–it’s literally the same content, just broken up into smaller chunks and with different story titles to work better on that app. If you’ve found your way here from my Radish account, however, welcome! You might want to look at buying my books outright to save money and get them all at once! Most of my Tymber Dalton books are NOT available on that app, however, sorry. It’s a contractual thing.
Oh, and Buffett is doing great! I’ll post more pics of him soon
Don’t forget you can buy merch from me!
And, in case you missed it, I also have an Etsy shop I’m busy posting stuff in, both finished items and patterns. Crocheting has played a HUGE role in helping me replenish my creative well lately in the wake of Kiwi’s death.