I know this is an old thread but it does seem an appropriate place to put my story. I’d like it here in case someone else is helped by seeing it, although I hope it never IS needed.
I’m someone who is unable to handle Verapamil. It’s extremely rare but does happen that some people have their heart adversely affected by calcium channel blockers. I’m one of those people.
I didn’t experience any negative side effects for the first four weeks after starting Verapamil. About four weeks in, my husband and I came home one night after seeing a show and were relaxing in the lounge. After a while, I started feeling a little funny and decided I probably needed something to eat but didn’t really feel like eating. Soon after, I noticed I could feel my heart beating and something seemed a little strange about it. I started checking my pulse at my wrist and wasn’t sure if I was doing it incorrectly so tried again on the carotid artery. I then asked my husband to check it and he summed up properly what was going on - 4 beats and then a break before the fifth. At the same time as the next beat came in, I would feel slight discomfort in my chest. It also felt as though it was quite an effort for the next beat to come through.
This was pretty scary - I’ve always been extremely healthy, barring the migraines and a round with Glandular Fever about fifteen years ago and heart problems in the 40’s isn’t known in my family. I promptly rang our After Hours Doctors number because I knew for sure I’d get straight through to a nurse. She was sufficiently concerned to send an ambulance around which arrived pretty rapidly, showing they certainly take heart problems seriously. Hearing the ambulance arrive prompted me to get out of the corner chair by the phone and back over to the couch where they’d have room somewhat sooner than I’d expected to need to. To be honest, I’d not really felt like getting up and moving again but the ambos really weren’t going to have room.
The ambos couldn’t find anything unusual but gave me the choice of being taken into the hospital anyway. Well, I knew what HAD been happening so I said, “Yes, please.” I was monitored on the short trip to our hospital and checked on arrival in triage. The triage nurse also couldn’t find anything unusual and I got the distinct impression that she thought I was being a hypochondriac. However, I knew that I’d felt a bit funny again while waiting for her to come and see me, even though it seemed to have passed off again and didn’t let her attitude worry me; I wanted to see a doctor and get properly and thoroughly checked. After all, as I’d been saying to my husband while waiting for the ambulance, I really wasn’t that old and this was my HEART!
Once I was admitted, they put me in a bed, started monitoring and we waited. Soon the strange pulse and unpleasant feeling in my chest came back. It transpired that I had a Second Degree Type 1 heart blockage, also known as a Wenckebach block. Simple explanation is that the Verapamil was interfering with the electrical current in my heart and making it difficult for the heart to beat correctly.
The treatment was fairly simple; they told me not to take any more Verapamil and kept me on the monitor until they were satisfied that my heart was back to normal. They also ran tests to ensure there had been no damage to my heart, which thankfully, there wasn’t.
I asked the hospital doctor why it was that when I stayed put that the problem returned but the ambos and triage nurse had been unable to find anything wrong. He explained that moving around caused the release of noradrenaline and this had regulated my heartbeat, and since I’d been moving around just before each time the paramedics and the triage nurse checked me, they found nothing.
So there you are; it’s such a rare reaction that my own doctor exclaimed when he heard what had happened that he hadn’t seen a patient with that problem in over 20 years (the hospital was slow getting the paperwork out to him so it was me that told him) but it is a known side effect of calcium channel blockers and he said that beta blockers may cause the same problem.
I was actually quite sorry to be taken off it because it seemed to be working well and asked my doctor if it was worth trying again at a lower dose but he quite firmly vetoed the idea! :lol:
The good news since then is that it looks like I’m one of the people who responds to dietary modification. A couple of months ago I got onto the diet as outlined in “Heal Your Headache” and breezed through the migraine that I had four weeks ago, even going to visit someone during it. Since then I’ve had a niggly head at times when I would normally expect a migraine and have just have a very short-lived migraine which I think was brought on by over-doing it - it’s been pretty hectic this last week and particularly Thursday and Friday. Both migraines responded to Naramig which used to be quite hit and miss (but mostly miss) before getting on the diet. For someone who has disabling headaches lasting two days more often than fortnightly, that’s a big step forward. So I’m hoping the diet IS responsible and it isn’t just some kind of remission.
Colleen