Fatigue

I have had 2 by-pass surgeries 1980 and 1995 and am still going ok for 73. I went from a EF of 20 to 50 after my cardio nurse prac. started me on Coreg 25mg 2X/day and Diovan 40 per day. My weight went up to 278 from bad diet so I got motivated and reduced over 1 year to 207. I'm 5' 8". The weight loss in Jan/Feb gave me some great energy to where I started snow skiing again.
March and April I had a tremendous amount of stress and many bad bloody nose problems. No breathing did not help much. Went in the local hospital and the start me on lasix 80mg every 12 hours. Lost like 12 lbs in two days. Extreme muscle cramps which doctors did nothing about so I stopped all my meds. My BP was 80/45 most of the time normal for me was 109/65.
My internist doc said stop the Diovan which helped and I got my nose bleeds fixed which helped. Started taking 800 mg of Mag which seems to help with the cramps.
I want my energy back and stop the darn depression from being tired. So my doc says maybe we should stop the Coreg.
I'm for stopping everything as I have no pain, never had angina after 1995 by-pass.
If I stop the Coreg should I immediately have a ultra-sound to measure my EF?  

[jrbon]

How long have you been on your medication?

How long from your last echo with 50% EF?

My view is that if you has been for a good while with the medication and now you accumulate fluids and feel tired, chances are that you EF has decreased and you are suffering an aggravation of Heart Failure. In that case it will not be wise to stop medication without a clear cardiac assessment (including EKG and echo).

The low BP, and the craps can easily be due to the Lasix and loss of fluids. Also if you have hot weather the BP can low.

Your medication it is not as much for angina as it is for keeping your heart in good shape.

Jesus