Here is the long story. My doctor put me on a drug called Belviq. It is an SSRI type drug that works like a SSRI but limited to hunger receptors. So I didn't believe it was an SSRI. I took it for about 7 weeks and I started to have symptoms of palpitations. At first they were super bad. My doctor told me to get off the drugs and I did. For about 7 weeks more I have had heart palpitations. Some of the worst I have ever had in my life.

I went and got an EKG. Nothing.
I went and got a holter monitor.. nothing (but I could not believe I didn't have a single palp the entire day)

I have had all the blood tests. All normal.

My doctor wants to put me on an event monitor. It is a beeper like device that is put on your body for a month and you press a button when you have a heart palpitation. I refuse.

I am sorry but
1. I am not walking around my workplace with wires and a beeper. I work in the public and I am NOT going to have people asking me about it all day. Plus I can't just up in a meeting stop to press the button. I just refuse because I know in the end they will just say "benign" -- so I am not going to embarras myself for nothing.
2. I looked into the company and a lot of the reviews say that data is crap. If you don't have a really serious problem you won't get good results. And even if you do you will just find out about it 2 years later when you have a stroke. The cost 4K -- yes 4K for a little heart monitor. Even if my insurance pays it, on principle... no way.
3. The insane thing is that like you have to like download the data to the company like 3 times a day for a month? That is insanity.

I am just so angry about the whole thing.. I feel like I would rather have an event and get it over with so I could get a real test in there with an echocardiogram or something.

I just feel like my doctor likes to come up with stupid things that she knows I won't do so that I will stop asking her rather than just help me. Heck how do I even know that the holter monitor was accurate at all? And I also feel a lot of anger at my doctor because she gave me no warning about the belviq and doesn't seem to connect the two now.

I find that the palpitations seem to do better when I drink water and sometimes even exercise.

I don't know my next step. I feel like if I go to a cardiologist they will just do the same thing and I refuse to do anything until I have it. Just refuse. Why can't they come up with better ways of doing this. Heck if she would give me something that would record me all weekend I would do that.

Off to write my doctor now that I cancelled the event monitor. Hope I don't get angry

[benzenering]

Just thinking out loud here. The med is out of your system now so there is no reason for you to be having heart palpitations, correct? These are also a symptom of anxiety. Could you be anxious over the fact that you MIGHT have heart palpitations, so you have them? Especially since everything else has been ruled out. A thought, anyway.

Originally Posted by benzenering

Just thinking out loud here. The med is out of your system now so there is no reason for you to be having heart palpitations, correct? These are also a symptom of anxiety. Could you be anxious over the fact that you MIGHT have heart palpitations, so you have them? Especially since everything else has been ruled out. A thought, anyway.

I am starting to believe that SSRI's have long withdrawal symptoms some that might never even resolve. I could be anxious and it could be making things worse but it is a vicious cycle.

My anxiety would resolve is someone could just examine my heart and tell me it is fine but so far... it is quite the battle to get a full examination.

Ok so last night was my first night giving magnesium a try. I have used it before but sporadically because I am also having issues with wet stools an my doctor said I should not have magnesium for a while. To my shock.. I haven't had a single palp all day. I know it is too early to jump to conclusions but if this is it, how did I get so magnesium deficient?

So still haven't had one.. going on 48 hours... I am starting to think that I am magnesium deficient. I have a magnesium supplement that is well absorbed... so I had about 400 mg, a large dose and this was a liquid anyway. So I think got a strong dose. Yesterday I insured I didn't have a lot of water so I could test if it was magnesium or water.

Wondering what could have caused me to become so magnesium deficient in a short period of time and SSRIs and many drugs can cause you to become depleted. This makes some sense as to why I might have started having symptoms while ON the drug and why after about 8 weeks on the drug.

Found this

7 Important Nutrients Depleted by Psychiatric Drugs ? Optimal Living Dynamics

So I asked my doctor to send me the actual results of the monitor.. and I am kind of pissed.
(1) written on the outside of the monitor was the words Phillips. A good quality brand. But the report came from something called "life watch" which I had occasion to look up for something else and there were tons of complains that their data was wrong and inaccurate. There are tons of notes from the readers of my monitor that the "quality of the recording was bad".
(2) despite the conclusion that all was fine.. I did have over 130 PVCs during the day. I actually have a monitor test from 2003 and at that time I had 41 in a 24 hour period. And this was a good day.
(3) I had Bracyardia (low heart rate for the entire 12 hour sleeping period) to me that is concerning. I don't know if I can compare that to the last one because that was 15 years ago and age makes your heart rate slow... but I had ZERO... last time.
(4) the process allows you to write down when you are having paps. So on my journal entry I wrote in at 10:00 AM that I was having palps, but within the notes I wrote that I was driving to the doctors appointment so obviously I couldn't write it down.. but between 10 and 11 I had paps. The report notes that at 10am I had no paps. NO it was 10 to 11 AM. Duh -- READ.
(5) and the thing that really cards my ... 1/2 the report is unreadable because of the poor quality copy job of whomever sent it to me. In this day and age who does such things? There is just no excuse for that.

Frustrated.