Posted by simcha on August 22, 2010, at 16:31:19
In reply to Re: Treatment Resistant Chronic Insomnia - Disability » simcha, posted by ed_uk2010 on August 20, 2010, at 17:28:58
ed_uk2010, No, I don't think the Sotalol makes me tired. Before my two failed catheter ablations, I was on ToprolXL (Metoprolol) and it gave me insomnia. It's a beta blocker and most people get sleepy on it.
Sotalol is a beta blocker too but it's also an anti-arrhythmic. I had to be in the hospital for 3 days in order to get on it because there is a serious side-effect that could happen in the first 3 days of treatment with Sotalol. It's called "Sudden Death," well actually it just stops your heart but it could amount to the same thing. It was scary to say the least. When I got out of surgery my heart rate was 160 beats per minute. The night after I took my first Sotalol dose, I was awakened by the heart monitor to the right side of my head that was giving an alarm. I saw that my heart rate was increasing. A team rushed in with a crash cart. I felt like my heart was going to leap out of my chest as it got to 220bpm or a little more. Then I felt my heart crash. It crashed down to 40bpm. Then it went up to 60bpm and they told me I'd be fine and took away the crash cart. No one told me that this would be likely but apparently it's what they were waiting for. It's called cardioversion. It's the resetting of the heart so that it can beat at a normal rate. I have to get an EKG every year to make sure that Sotalol isn't causing my heart to beat irregularly.
My heart issue is completely electrical. I have no plaque or abnormalities in my heart. There's no sign of heart disease. It's manageable with the medication until they find a surgery to cure my particular kind of Ectopic Atrial Tachycardia. The spot wasn't easily accessible on the wall of my right atrium. Apparently it's either inside the heart wall or on the outside of the heart wall, and that surgery is still very experimental. Therefore my heart rate is managed by medication for the time being.
Anyway, the side effects I notice from the Sotalol is that sometimes if I stand up too quickly I'll have a wave of dizziness because it brings my blood pressure lower than normal (I don't have high blood pressure without it), and I have a harder time exercising because my heart will only beat so fast. I have to be more deliberate and gradual about it and stop if I get overly winded. My cardiologist says that the heart can be conditioned to expand to pump more blood to provide more oxygen to the extremities but it won't beat anywhere near as fast as it would without the Sotalol keeping the heart rate low.
I do know that some people experience drowsiness on Sotalol. In fact all of my medications have warnings about driving, dizziness, drowsiness, and strong advice to abstain from alcohol. Sometimes I wonder how I'm not just propped up in a corner drooling somewhere unable to move when I look at all the warnings on my meds.
The short answer is, no, I don't get sleepy from the Sotalol (at least not enough to notice). :-)
poster:simcha
thread:958465
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20100821/msgs/959411.html