Hi Caro,
Sorry, just saw this post. I am still taking the propranolol – 10 mg a day each morning. I have an appointment this afternoon with a cardiologist, actually an electrophysiology cardiologist to be exact. I plan to talk to him about my heart rate, and the fact that my endocrinologist says there is no reason why it still races or why I am still intolerant to heat, always sweaty and out of breath 18 months after RAI and now hypO. I know my heart rate has come down because when I was first diagnosed, I was taking 20mg every 8 hours. It really put me into a fog where I felt like I was slipping into unconsciousness, so they dropped me down to 10mg every 8 hours, and I continued on that dose for a little more than a year. After RAI, I cut back to 10mg in the morning and 10mg in the evening. I needed it or else I laid in bed at night with a racing heart, unable to sleep. I was able to wean myself off the evening dose, but still keep a few extras cut in half because if I have a glass of wine within two hours of trying to go to bed, my heart is racing too much to sleep, so I will take 5mg. That’s annoying, so I pretty much stopped drinking my once or twice weekly glass of wine.
I also had a really high LDL at my physical in January 2011. I have not had it checked since because of my move and lack of insurance for the first half of 2012. It will get checked at my pre-surgery physical in September, but I have a feeling the cardiologist will order labs for it today. My endo and PCP both attributed the high LDL to propranolol. Upon diagnosis, when they ran all sorts of labs to find out what was wrong with me (with a resting heart rate of 170bpm or so and dropping weight by the day), my LDL was 100 “points” (can’t remember the lingo) lower than it was exactly one year later. During that year, I was not able to exercise much but cut junk food out, did yoga and walked a lot, and took only the PTU, propranolol and birth control (Yaz) for acne. PTU is not known to increase LDL and neither is Yaz, and propranolol can, so my doctors told me not to worry about my LDL. My HDL was in the “great” category so none of it made sense to me, but they didn’t appear concerned.
I will certainly ask the cardiologist about all of my symptoms and everything you’ve mentioned. I’ll post an update this evening or next week. I’m heading out of town in the morning for a wedding in Mystic, CT, so I may not be around a computer until Monday. Thanks for sharing your beta blocker journey and I’ll let you know how the appointment goes!