For me, personally, my heart rate was dramatically increased while on interferon and riba. That's just me though. It seems that the treatment meds have greatly varying effects for everyone and it sounds like your hubby is in good hands.
Glad your husband's headed home, and hopefully the reduction in dose will help.
My husband has been on 20mg of nadolol since before he started treatment, and continues to be on the same dose now, but initially when they first prescribed 50mg of beta-blocker (before treatment), his heart-rate and bp took a too-sharp nose dive, and they quickly cut his dose down, first to 30 then to 20. (The doctor said some people's bodies can be "very sensitive" to beta-blockers, and dosing was often trial-and-error.I found that a bit disconcerting, but at least he was honest.) Don't know whether inf/riba lowers heart rate, but I will say during my husband's severe anemia on treatment (he needed transfusion), his heart-rate did go down to the low 50s/high 40s, so you should definitely make sure they're checking your husband's CBCs regularly. Hope that helps. Best wishes. ~eureka
hi there,
could you tell me if the reason your husband went on the nadalol was because he had varacies? And they wanted to stop any internal bleeding due to these enlarged veins? If so do you know how progressed his varacies was? Do they tell you? Are you finished treatment or are you on treatment?
HOw is treatment working for you? How many weeks have you been on it?
Thanks
My husband was already taking a cardiac beta-blocker, metoprolol, for about a year for his heart condition. Because he has cirrhosis, they did a routine EGD last year, and found he had "trace" varices due to "slight" portal hypertension -- no active bleeding though, thank goodness. He was fortunate it wasn't anything dangerous, so the docs switched his 20mg of metoprolol to 20mg of nadolol as a preventative -- since he was already taking a beta-blocker, it was an easy switch for him.
As far as what doctors tell you .... not much if you don't ask. The doc just said "everything is ok, we'll see you next year" -- but I insisted on knowing more, and asking exactly what he saw, how progressed, preventative measures, etc. (Sometimes I ask so many questions, my husband gets tired of it lol.) It's good, though, that your husband has an advocate -- whenever possible get copies of all of his reports.
My husband is supposed to have an endoscopy every year to watch for growing varices, but hasn't yet this year because he is currently doing the treatment, and it has been tough on him. He's had a couple of blood transfusions, and they watch his platelets closely -- but he's been able to continue, to try to kill this virus for good. He's done 54 shots of a planned 72 so far because he's genotype 1, and we're thankful that the treatment has been working for him so far. He got to undetectable virus at week 13. (I should mention he's taking an additional medication, Alinia, in addition to the standard treatment of pegasys & ribavirin). We're hoping and praying that his treatment will be successful, but he has a ways to go before we'll know for sure.
If your husband already has complications from cirrhosis, it's important his treatment be watched closely under the guidance of an experienced and knowledgeable hepatologist, especially good if it's a liver specialist with ties to a transplant center. I can't overstate the importance asking questions and getting copies of everything for future reference when you can: blood tests, procedures, etc. Hope that helps. ~eureka