Does Digoxin or Metoprolol cause choking sensations?

[Joni686]

Does anyone know or have experience with taking Digoxin or Metoprolol and did it cause you to have a choking feeling?  I have been on both for about 5 weeks now and have had this choking sensation for about that long.  I have been sent for an ultrasound of my neck and they found nothing.  My Internest acted like it was in my head and told me to take Tylenol.  Maybe she thought I was trying to get pain meds out of her.  That just didn't make sense.  I am not in pain.  I just feel like someone has their thumb on my throat about where my adams apple would be if I had one.  My PCP told me it could be the Metoprolol and I have been off of it for 4 days now.  My heart rate is fine and I was down to a very low dose anyway.  I am wondering if it will take longer to get it out of my system or if it may be the Digoxin ro something completely different.  Please if anyone has experienced this let me know.
Thanks
Joni

[Fibergirlpam]

I was recently in the hospital for a bad bout of a-fib.  They had trouble slowing down my heart rate, so they decided to put me on digoxin for a month.  I had all sorts of weird thumps in my chest, which I later found out were premature heartbeats, and after three weeks on the digoxin, they were so strong, I had to sleep sitting up.  I also had trouble swallowing, with a lot of pain between my neck and my chest, and I had awful heartburn,  I felt so awful that I quit taking the digoxin just to see what would happen, and within 24 hours, my symptoms started subsiding, so I knew it was the digoxin and not some new heart problem.  When I saw my sleep doctor a week later, he said I had a classic textbook case of digoxin side effects, and that it takes a good month to clear your system.  I think we need to listen to our bodies and our instincts and stand up to our doctors, when we know things are wrong.

[moo101]

Hi, I googled my mums symptoms and found your post which describes my mums symptoms while being on Digoxin.  All doctors are telling her its psychological bot it’s not.  You can see the swelling.  Last year cardiologist specialists advised her to have open heart valve replacement surgery and that they would stop Digoxin and the swelling would also go away, but it hasn’t.  It’s still there and she is still taking Digoxin.  Did you find a doctor who helped you in the end?

[hannah011]

I have been taking Metoprolol er 50 mg and hydrochlorot 25 mg for my blood pressure for the past 7 months.  Right now I have a swollen  lymph node  in my neck that has been treated twice with antibiotics and is still there.  I also have a bruise on my leg that keeps coming back with a knot inside it.  Plus I feel I have fluid or swelling in by chest area.  I have been to the doctor but nothing helps.  Please tell me if this is the blood pressure medicine I am taking or maybe something else.

[Joni686]

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND.
TTYL
: )

[ireneo]

Any rhythm difference can be called an arrhythmia. That doesn't mean it's life threatening. I have 3, possibly 4 different types of arrhythmia and none of them will hurt me. They just make my life interesting :-)  That's the good news.

You may be having those premature beats during the day as well but when we're active, we don't notice them as much or often. In the evening while we're quietly reading a book or trying to get to sleep, then we can feel the bla bloops as you call them (that's great!).

I'll check back in with you later Monday to see what results you got.

[Joni686]

It sounds like the same thing my doctor tells me I have.  He calls it an early heart beat.  I have been getting them for years and I usually felt them in the evenings, sometimes during the day but mostly in the evenings and they seem to always happen more at the end of the month when I was under more stress and having buyers close on their homes.  Right before the lupus kicked in in 2007 I started having higher blood pressure and would feel the bla bloops more often.  Now, since I was in the hospital in Januray I feel them constantly.  I don't know how long the EKG actually runs, it is very fast, but I had three during it the other day.  So do you think that is a PVC?  I am going to ask my cardio what it is called.  An early heart beat sounds simplified.  He has also called it arrythmias I think.
I had my CT Scan this afternoon.  They said I should know something by Monday afternoon.  They did it with and without contrast and when they did the contrast it made my heart beat very fast and my throat feel tighter.  Like I told my friend, I really don't want them to find anything but they have to find something.  I just can't stand this feeling anymore or the lump sticking out of my neck.
Thanks so much for all your support and sharing your knowledge with me.

[ireneo]

Sorry about that. I see we have a long list of acronyms under the health pages. It gives the letters and what they stand for but not a description.

A PVC is a premature ventricular contraction. It means there's an electrical signal firing off a little too soon and you get a strange little hiccup type heart beat. Many people have them and don't feel them. Some people can feel them quite strongly.

I average 1-5 a minute all day long. The sensation varies from nothing to a real kick in the chest for me. Most are just a thump, like a little frog jumped in my chest.

[Joni686]

You just convinced me to get a second opinion from another cardiologist.  I have really needed to do that anyway.  My brother has been trying to get me to go and I have put it off but I need someone to explain this stuff to me so I know what's going on.  I am just so worn out at this point and I hate starting over with a new doctor trying to catch them up on everything.  I believe this doctor is very good but not so good at slowing down and giving me one on one.  I do trust that he would find something is there was something very wrong.  But like you mentioned before, I am one of those people that likes to understand how things work and know what's going on even if it's not the greatest news.  I just want to know because then I can learn to be ok with whatever it is and relax.
By the way, all your acronyms are over my head at this point in cardiology.  lol  I have no idea what PVC is.  Last I heard it was a pipe.  lol  Talk later.  Have a good day.
Joni

[ireneo]

So the cardio didn't even bother to put a name to the "dip?" I think there's more than one dip in that room LOL. A single blip here and there on the EKG could be a simple ectopic, likely a PVC. The thing with EKG's the tracing will look different depending on which lead is taking the tracing. So a blip could go way up on one lead and way down on another lead. Did you have the 12 lead EKG in the office? The same 10 seconds of reading will look different from each area of the chest. So I don't know what to say. A tachycardia time will show a bunch of spikes close together.

I'm glad you're getting some testing done and at least one doctor noticed there's real problem going on there. If the clavicles are swollen, it's good to check other internal structures in that same area. And don't forget to ask about the metoprolol, whether you might need to switch to a different BB.

[Joni686]

Hi Ireneo,

I went to my Gastro. doc today and he walked into the room and said, "Your clavical area is very swollen".  He is the first doctor to notice without me even saying anything.  When I first went to my Internest about it a month or so ago when it first started I pointed to the area that is swollen and she acted like she couldn't see it.  Then she brought me a glass of water and watched me drink it.  I still don't know what that was about.  She did send me to have an ultrasound but she made the comment that she didn't think it was anything but would do an ultrasound to make sure.  It made me feel like I was back at the beginning before I was diagnosed with lupus when I was so exhausted and in pain but the first few doctors I saw couldn't figure out what it was so I was told it was all in my head.  That is until one very smart Neurologist did an ANA test on me and found it to be positive.  Anyway, I am just astonished that my gastro would tell me he thinks I may have arthritis in the soft tissue around my throat, neck and clavical area.  This is guess for now and he is sending to have a CT scan tomorrow afternoon.  Thank God someone is listening to me.  I can't stand this much longer.  I have only had difficulty actually swollowing a few times and most of the time it feels like pressure and just a choking sensation but yes it is there all the time.  The best I can do is try not to think about it.  Lats night I had a hard time swolling my pills and they went down after about three tries.  That was weird.  Tonight I felt like I could feel every bit of food I ate going down my throat and pressure in my chest a bit.  If not for the CT scan going on tomorrow I think I would be close to giving up on my doctors and going to an ER.  Eating dinner was a little nerve racking tonight.
Thank you so much for you concern.  You are a sweetheart and I can tell you are a very caring person.
Let me ask you something.  The Cardiologist showed me my EKG yesterday and there were three big dips on it.  He said this is where you feel an arrhythmia.  He is not very easy to ask questions of.  Do your EKGs show drops like that and is that when you feel a flutter?
God Bless,
Joni

[ireneo]

The only time I've had that odd "finger on the throat" feeling was during my arrhythmias. Did the doctor check to see if there was any mild swelling in the throat? Are you having trouble swallowing at all? It must be so annoying to have that all the time.