Bisoprolol buddies

i have spoken to my GP and have halved my dose to 1.25mg....feeling less tired already only after 5 days...my blood had been too low for weeks...i will be stopping the bisoprolol in 7 weeks time then see how i go...touch wood...i do not experience the symptoms i used to...wish me luck ...hope you all feel better soon x

I am 25 and have been on bisoprolol for nearly two years now. I am incredibly tired almost all of the time! Thankfully I am only on 2.5mg (can't imagine the exhaustion on a higher dose) I also get very vivid dreams/hallucinations. Does anybody else experience this? It only started when I got put on the bisoprolol.

Hello everyone, Boy am i glad to meet you lot, as i think i would go insane otherwise. All i can say is i cannot carry on living like this, what on earth is happening to me, i think im going mad....surely the way i feel cannot be caused by the Bisoprolol, surely not. I could cry like a baby, as this is a crap life im living at the moment,.

Ive been on Bisoprolol for almost 2 yrs now, i got chest pains etc, ended up in a cardiac ward for a week, i had just finished having treatment for cancer and thought my life was just starting again!! severe breathlessness, heart racing etc, cardiac dr put me on 1.25mg Bisoprolol...heart wont stop racing to the extent i can't hardly breathe.... went up to 2.5, 3.25 on and on until im now at 7.5mg a day, but i'm so tired all the time i don't have a life, when i try to get up in the morning, its like i'm drunk or on drugs, the heavy body feeling almost dragging me to the floor, i'm like a drunk person dragging myself around my house trying to do the house work etc, i then sit in my armchair and fall asleep again, the whole family are moaning at me for being so lazy, its causing untold arguments amongst, i feel so lazy. I struggle to do my daily tasks, don't go out any more, dont socialise, i would much rather be sleeping in bed. Every thing i do in my life is such an effort, why.....is it really all down to this stupid tablet. Mind you, this tablet is saving my life so i should not moan really.....i have tried a couple of times to stop the table by slowing reducing it, but then i can't breathe because my heart is racing so fast. So what choice do i have. I am getting depressed now because i just don't have the energy to do anything, i am 49 now, i was working full time and had a 'normal' life, but my life is slowly going down the pan. What can we do, are you all feeling like this!!! xx

@honeybea - I had the same problem but I got fed up with the tablets after only getting to 2.5mg! Have they diagnosed you with a specific condition?

Hi K1tk8T, The cardiologist said i had heat failure, but when i kept going back complaining that my heart would not stop racing and i was getting chest pain, she sort of implied that she was much more interested in her patients who were seriously ill....i.e. triple heart bypass surgeries etc. I felt upset by this as my heart symtoms are ruling my life, and she said ' oh its only grade 2 heart failure' as though that was nothing. Well to me heart failure is very serious as it never gets better, and all im doing is slowly getting more ill, but now i wonder if a lot of it is to do with the Bisoprolol!

I can't stop the tablets, i keep trying, but my heart gets real bad, i.e. i only forgot 2 days worth and i was so breathless....so when i actually weaned myself off of them , i was really bad, breathless, heart racing etc. So i am left not sure what to do, she feels my heart failure is nothing, but im struggling big time, i can't do the things i used to, and i don't have the life i used to have, and still want. How did you just stop them??

honeybea, I am sorry that your cardiologist has been like that, mine is very short with me. I have been diagnosed with heart failure but they will not tell me what is wrong or what it means to me as they are still doing tests. They have put me on these tablets and told me not to worry!

The difference for me is I felt like this for a year before and was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome and put on a host of pills with side effects. So I was already tired all the time and in pain in my joints and muscles. The cardiologist says it may have all been my heart but they are making me take all my original pills plus this. You need to rest when you need to and get plenty of sleep. It is hard for family to understand and I get the same as you from work and family when I cannot get up or am too tired to get things done but you need to rest when your body tells you no matter what other people say or it will accumulate.

Although other people have been successful at coming off these pills, we are all different and have different variations of heart problems and I would not advise you coming off these just because some one else has. It is hard and we are all in the same boat but we are all here if you need to vent or need any advice.

I'm really sorry to hear that honeybea.

I got diagnosed with AF and I told my cardiologist I didn't want to be on tablets for the rest of my life! I had an ablation in march this year, I was told I didn't have to take the bisoprolol anymore after the procedure. I was so happy to be off the tablets then 5 weeks later I was in hospital again and I was told my AF was back and that I had to go back on the bisoprolol!! I was devastated! So now I'm bck on the tablets until I have my next ablation, but there is an 18 week waiting list. So another 18 weeks of bisoprolol!

I know this isn't the same situation as yours but I can't believe your cardiologist can't suggest anything else for you.

Hello Jake and K1t, Jake i get so angry when the dr's just put us on meds and tell us not to worry, that is how they treat me, but my life has changed so much i need to sort this out and know what is going on. You need to ask them if they are saying you have heart failure, what grade is it, this will let you know how bad it is, it goes from grade 1 to grade 4, grade 4 being the worst. Do let me know when they tell you exactly what is wrong with you, will be interesting to see what they say!! Also, re: your CFS, i was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia ten years ago, and i also have terrible joint pain and joint stiffness, it makes life very difficult with all these different symptoms.

K1t.. i thought initially i had AF because of the symptoms i had and also one of the dr's in A&E put on my notes i had AF, but now the dr says i haven't got it!. Soooo confusing, I am so sorry to hear you went through all that only to have to go back on the tablets, how heart breaking for you, i would have cried.

I am going to see my g.p, today, ive just moved to Brighton from Surrey so only had this g.p.. for 2 months, he knows nothing about me but so far he seems good. I am going to ask him today, is it the Bisoprolol making me feel this ill, because this is not a life, nothing like i used to be. Trouble is, i was fighting cancer all through 2011, i only finished my treatment 18 months ago so a lot of my problems have been blamed on the cancer treatment, but as time goes on i think they are realising its not all down to that.

I got up this morning at 9.15, dragged myself out of my bed, dragged myself to the bathroom, did a small bit of housework, fed my animals then had to lay down, i so needed to go back to sleep, i was desperate for some more sleep, but i actually feel like im full of heavy lead and im drugged up.... how on earth can i stop this, God only knows. I will see what this g.p.suggests tonight, i will update later on. xxxxx

Good morning all..... I am so glad I found this website this morning!

I was diagnosed with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation a couple of years ago and put directly onto bisoprolol 10 mg daily....eeek! Having been on Inderal LA for some 20 years prior to that for moderate essential hypertension - as you can imagine it was like being hit with a sledgehammer.

I am in my 70s but very active for my age - and prior to this had enjoyed walking 3 miles before breakfast with my labradors everyday. Now I am down to a "Wainright plod" - and can manage only about 500 yards at a time.

I keep telling my GP it is the bisoprolol..... He keeps telling me there is no alternative.

Believe it or not I have been referred to a neurologist and see him this very afternoon on account of practically all the varied symptoms that I have been reading in your posts.

Is it not incredible that doctors do not believe patients any more. I have been telling him that I have slowed down - that I am dizzy - that I am falling over and that I am very ataxic since being on that drug and all he can offer is more drugs to try to stop my dizziness! I call that polypharmacy.

I was interested to note one of your correspondence had tried dividing the dose and that this had helped somewhat. .... And if all else fails I will try this myself.

It has been a great relief to find other people are suffering the way I have over the past two years ..... In my instance.... not only suffering but developing further seriously disabling symptoms as time goes on.

As one wiseguy once wrote - for every ill there is a pill...... well frankly in my estimation - for every pill there is an ill - and some that are far worse than the original complaint.

I fully realise that the alternative to life on drugs is a bleak one - BUT - having had my three score years and ten - I am at the stage as I contemplate my life as it is now on this wretched drug, of not wishing to continue if it means feeling like this.

If I could find an alternative to bisoprolol - I would discontinue the stuff immediately..... And look forward to letting you all know how I get on.

I take 5 mg, anything more than a steady plod is a struggle, it's like I'm carrying an extra 20 - 40 kg or something, I'm completely leaden, 42 and I'm knackered

Hello Alzheimer, please do let me know how you get on with the Neurologist as i myself am waiting for an appointment to come through to see one also. I also have some dizzy spells but not a lot, but when i do feel dizzy i will be standing up and all of a sudden it feels like i am tipping over to one side, or i can be sitting in my arm chair and it feels like the whole arm chair is tipping over, i sometimes just shut my eyes and wait for it to pass lol.

House.... i totally understand the feeling of carrying an extra 20-40 kg, i am already overweight but used to work full time and lead a tired but normal life, I fought cancer then after that got these heart problems, and now on the Bisoprolol.......well its like i don't have a life, i am also feeling depressed a lot now but i feel that is down to the fact the im just too tired to go anywhere or do anything, i am 49 and have become more like an 89 yr old, i don't have a life....full stop.

Going back to my last post, i went to see my g.p. and asked him to change or do something with the Bisoprolol, but he said i need to see my cardiologist and talk to him/her, but as ive only just recently moved to this area i don't have a cardiologist yet, i'm still waiting for my first appointment to come though.

I also have severe memory problems, it is beyond a joke, but this could be long term affects from the chemo or some form of dementia, as my sister has got dementia very young, i am waiting to see someone about this.

Well i will post back as soon as ive seen this cardiologist to see what he/she says,.

Best wishes

Honeybea xx

Hi there Honeybea, House etc...

That's me just back from seeing the neurologist...... and a fat lot of good he was!

His examination was thorough enough - but he was strongly of the opinion that my symptoms were not due to the bisoprolol. He brightly informed me that I'd had a stroke - albeit a mini one.

As I promptly remarked - what a coincidence that it should have happened immediately after I started taking the bisoprolol. He had the grace to look somewhat shamefaced - particularly when I added that my symptoms were steadily worsening - to the degree now that I have swollen ankles all the time along with breathlessness on exertion and worst of all, increasing balance and gait initiation problems.

He could offer no help of course but suggested that I speak to my own GP again as well as my cardiologist - big deal ...LOL

One feel so flaming helpless when the medical profession gang up against you like this.

So it is back to the drawing board for me, folks....

I will be interested to hear what your specialist have to say Honeybea -- and wish you all the luck in the world. I sincerely hope that you get on better than I have just done.

Do keep us posted please...

Cheers all....