Bradycardia after crash

Symptoms
#1

After my latest crash I noticed that my heart rate dropped to 50bpm and blood pressure went up. I don’t know if that’s due to testosterone dropping from the crash or something more problematic. If it wasn’t for my Fitbit id never have known.

If it’s due to testosterone I may need TRT. I don’t seem sensitive to raising androgens. I’ve tolerated TRT in the past but my latest crash has brought new symptoms. It’s a risk but having bradycardia is a life threatening condition. My heart hurts at the moment. You start to doubt your own future under these circumstances.

#2

I know the feeling. I had a lot of terrible autonomic symptoms during my crash, and unfortunately recently they have come back. I’m in very poor shape as a result. My automatic breathing drops out when I’m trying to go to sleep/if I get any I will often wake up gasping. I am having a lot of arrhythmia to the point I am coughing a lot, often in conversation, as a result. As they did significantly lessen before I am really hoping they will again…I’ve still got quite a to do list and this is doing me no favours.

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#3

Hopefully you’ll recover quickly from these latest symptoms. Don’t know if you have considered using hyperbaric oxygen therapy once every couple of weeks as an overall health boost. The MS clinics/charities offer this therapy to neurological patients and the general public.
It’s good for fatigue/mitochondria and raises cortisol.

Take care.

#4

@axolotl what you’re describing sounds like sleep apnea. Others here have come down with sleep apnea after PFS. You could treat it with a mask/sleep study and you might just feel a ton better from getting actual sleep.

#5

I have Bradycardia… it was one of the first things i noticed after my crash. When I was in the hospital my heart rate would drop into the 30s when sleeping. I thought I needed a pace maker and wore a holter monitor for a week. Thats back when I slept all the time. Now I have severe insomnia and certain sleep drugs cause my prolonged QT syndrome where my heart pounds and the heart rate goes up into the 80s or 90s. I also get some of that after eating heavy or salty meals. My resting heart rate while sitting at my desk is usually in the high 40s low 50s. I believe this is due to low DHT which effects the heart electrophysiology . I did notice that my heart rate at night now stays in the 40s and doesnt go into the 30s… so that “seems” like an improvement. I have worn a fitbit a long time before PFS so I can see the change.

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#6

@axolotl and @Shellnyce thanks for sharing your symptoms, it helps to know others are going through similar issues.

#7

Yeah, have you done a sleep study before to check for sleep disordered breathing? There is obstructive sleep apnea and then there is central sleep apnea as well. Finasteride use greatly worsened my obstructive apnea for which I use a CPAP as you already know. For obstructive apnea, the collapse is usually at the tongue base. Sleeping on one’s side and using a cervical collar to keep the jaw from dropping and the tongue base from closing off the airway can help greatly.

#8

thank you for the concern guys. I have discussed it in regular and emergency appointments but I wasn’t able to be provided with a sleep study. It is most certainly central - i didn’t make this clear in that post but, while it happening as I’m trying to go to sleep is the most frightening, I am experiencing it throughout the day and it is completely exhausting me having to manually “take over” breathing. I want so much to do my best to help everyone and stop this from happening to others, and I am just hoping very much this along with the arrhythmia will somehow settle down very soon.

#9

Damn it, I just sold an ASV. It’s a bilevel machine, or CPAP with different pressures for inhale/exhale, that forces a breath whenever it detects no attempt to breathe, aka a backup rate. You probably know what it is, but that’s the machine you need.

At least in North America, getting insured for an ASV through the proper channels can be a tremendous hurdle.
Many people just buy a machine out of pocket and titrate themselves with the program SleepyHead, now called OSCAR.

You can often do better that way with the help of the apneaboard or cpaptalk communities than what a sleep physician or supplier can do for you. Patients need to learn how to readjust their settings as they see fit anyway. The machines are actually a fraction of the prices that medically insured suppliers sell them at if you know where to look. Secondwindcpap is the best online reseller retail store with warranty or you could head over to cpaptalk to post an ad but you won’t have a 2 year manufacturer’s warranty buying second hand that way. Let me know if you need help looking for one.

Resmed’s latest one from 2014 is the AirCurve 10 ASV, the one before that is the S9 VPAP Adapt w/ ASV. They are functionally the same. These machines are pretty much self titrating and offer the best care for most people.

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#10

Thanks @mercked, I’ll give you a pm re this later if that’s ok.

#11

Please feel free to.