antiboitics-scared to take anything!

[iamfaithful]

Hello-

About a week ago I posted that I am weaning off of my meds for heart palps.  Well this is day two w/no medicine and I am very nervous.  I think I am making myself, or I should say working myself into a panic.  Now I am looking at several perscriptions my primary care physician wrote me because I have an infection.  I research EVERYTHING when it comes to meds and I told her there was one particular pill I didn't feel comfortable taking.  She of course acted like it was not going to hurt me but prescribed something differerent along w/an antibiotic.  The dose she prescribed is fine but it's for twice a day and that makes me nervous.  I looked it up and usually it is dispensed at a higher mg and taken once a day.  So now I am more nervous then ever.

I am going to the pharmacy later on to get it (them) filled and definately will have a consult with the Pharm.  but I am so tired of feeling like this.  Where is my faith?  I am afraid anything is going to make my heart palpitate.........  I just want to cry.  I am so tired of going to the doctor and them always finding something where I have to take doggone meds. for it!

I just need some help this a.m.  I can feel the signs of anxiety surfacing.  It started very early this morning before I even got out of bed.

[greenlydia]

Do they know why you are having heart palps? How often were you having them? I will assume you've had a good cardio work up and they put you on those meds to get your heart back into a normal rhythm, IF it was even OUT of a normal rhythm. Did they have you wear a Holter monitor? If not, they weren't too concerned! They may have just given you something to calm down so the palps would stop. Anxiety will cause palps in heart beat, pun intended! Are you going off these meds under your doctors orders and supervision? You're on day two without them. How are the palps? Since you obviously know that obsessing about them is going to make them happen, or make them happen more often, you need to try and calm down and know that if there was anything REALLY wrong with your heart, your doctor would be doing something about it.
And yes, you are indeed working yourself into a state of panic over this and it wouldn't surprise me if very soon you began to experience the palps again which will freak you out, the palps will increase and you'll be speeding off to your doctor again!
Your doctor has written you two scripts. One for an antibiotic for an infection. Research it all you want, but for crying out loud, take it. It's not going to hurt you, but whatever infection you have certainly might.
The other script you were afraid to take and told your doctor was for what? It's none of my business, I'm just nosy! But if she rewrote the script so you were taking the med in two divided (lower) doses instead of one big higher one, then applaud her for trying to make you feel more comfortable. Why would this make you so nervous? Did you and she discuss possible side effects and all the reasons you needed to be on this med? Did you tell her your fears? You must have said something if she changed the dosing.
Good plan to talk to the pharmacist about these meds. I'm sure he/she will be able to relieve your mind, but there does come a point when you do have to have a certain amount of faith. If you trust your doctor, trust that she is doing her very best for you and would do nothing to harm you.
Since your main concern is that the meds are going to cause your heart to palpitate, perhaps it's time for a very serious discussion with your doctor about this. It sounds like it's becoming an obsession and you don't want to go there!
Since you are also concerned that every time you go to the doctor, they find something that requires another med. Ya know, it's entirely your right to question them as to why they think you need a medication, and it's also your right to even refuse it if YOU seriously don't think you need it. But this goes back to the trust and faith issue with your doctor. If you think she is nothing more than a pill pusher, change doctors. If she is willing to take the time and explain why she is prescribing something for you, trust her. Have a little faith. I see my doctor pretty frequently for anxiety issues, but I seldom walk out of there with any pills. But I have absolute trust in my doc and I know that if she thought I really needed to be on something, she would put me on it and explain why. I saw her last week for a really horrible sinus infection. She put me on antibiotics and also wrote a script for Vicodan for the pain. I asked her if I really needed to take something that strong and she said it was entirely up to me. I could walk around feeling like my head was about to explode, damn near pass out from the pain if I had to bend over, live with a constant mind-blowing headache, or I could take the damn Vicodan and feel better. She explained to me that at the point my infection was at, taking some aspirin (MY idea) would not even begin to touch the amount of pain I was in. I don't like pain meds at all, don't like how they make me feel, but I also couldn't stand the pain I was in, so I took the pills. (Well, I took a few of them and I broke those in half, but I was more or less pain free, and the relief was so worth it!)
Sorry...........didn't mean to change the subject to me, but we all have some bugaboos about meds. Especially new ones that we don't know how they will affect us.
My advice......take the meds. Try your very best to not focus on your heart, but if the palps do come back, then my advice holds............go back to your doc and get to the bottom of the heart palps once and for all. I would also suggest you go over to the Heart Rhythm forum and talk to the folks there. Do you know that many of them live with as many as 3000+ palps a day! And there is NOTHING wrong with their hearts. They can give you a great deal of reassurance about yours! They totally helped me with mine!
Best of luck, but don't just sit around freaking out. Be proactive. It's YOUR heart! Which has nothing wrong with it, by the way.
Peace
Greenlydia        

[iamfaithful]

Thanks for the response.  Sorry I didn't post my background, but I have been around so long I guess I just assumed.....

I have been dealing with this for almost two years now.  It started back in the srping of 2007.  Been to so many doctors can't count.  Would make regular trips to the ER, called 911 with my first panic attack because I thought I was dying.  I have worn holter montiors for a month twice and the first time was for two weeks.  It showed that I WAS having heart palps.  I have had a CT scan (for something else), numerous x-rays, stress test with the dye or whatever, ummmmm, the heart ultrasound.  I can't remember the name for that, but I have had that done twice.  My cardio FNIALLY told me that my anxiety was what has my heart going.  I was put on beta blockers initially.  I was 25 mg for the longest, then 12.5 every other day for MONTHS.  My last visit which was a few weeks ago the PA told me that I was taking such a low dose I could quit anytime I wanted too; but I opted to cut the 12.5 in half and took those every other day for a week or two.  I decided to stop them on Saturday night-so I have missed two days now.  That is the VERY short version :-)

So yep, been checked out, used to be a regular member on the heart rhythm forum.  In fact I will most likely post a question on there later on.  I just needed some listening ears today because I was getting all freaked out.  And yes, you are SO right.  I am getting palps today because of the meds that I am about go pick up.  My head keeps telling me that I may need to go back on my beta blocker.  But everyone keeps telling me the amount I was taking wasn't doing that much for me anyway.

I have SERIOUS heart anxiety which stems from a friends sudden death a few years back.  So I can be quite a mess at times.  I just want to be med free, or at least I don't want to be dependent on meds everyday!

You are right about the infection.  I need to take the pills.  No, the antibiotics weren't the same thing.  She was trying to prescribe diflucan (sp?) but if you have heart rhythm disorders  you shouldn't take it.  So she prescribed a cream.  The antibiotics are for the bacteria.  

I am really really trying to have faith, beleive me I am.  I need to learn to trust my doctors, but first and foremost GOD!  I can see what I have done to myself.  My palps are pretty bad today and I am so angry at myself for creating them!  Ugh, hopefully they will pass.

[greenlydia]

I know you've been around a long time, but my memory isn't what it use to be. LNSOL (Laugh not so out loud!)

One thing you said that jumped off the page at me was that you KNOW why you have heart anxiety...............the sudden and horrid loss of your friend.
Instead of being on meds that your cardio says you don't need because the palps are totally related to anxiety, why not look into some therapy and deal with the anxiety your friends death has caused you?

I don't want to get into a bunch of psychobabble that I'm completely unqualifed to engage in, but if you have some unresolved issues about the loss of your friend, even anger that they "left" you........which is very normal, perhaps, just perhaps, by confronting those things, you can beat the anxiety which is causing the heart palps.....
It's just a thought and maybe a stupid one, but it seems to me like it might be worth a try if it could rid you of the anxiety/palp cycle.

Go get those meds. Talk to the pharmacist. Think about the therapy. Or do whatever you have to that will make life better for you. If that means going back on the beta blockers, do it. Life is too short and taken from us too suddenly to spend one more minute suffering with anxiety.

Let me know how your doing, OK? Drop a PM anytime! We'll clock each other's palps!
We ARE silly cows, you know that, right?
With love
Greenie  

[iamfaithful]

I agree.  I need to get back into therapy desperately.  It has been over a year since I have been.  I think once I can convince myself that I am okay they won't affect me as badly.  Believe me.  I have come a LONGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG way since 2007.  Man I was a basket case.  And yes, we can be silly very often :-)

Thanks so much!