Has anyone else taken Labetalol

MrsRiceARoni · March 2011

Or a similar BP med? My Dr put me on Labetelol when I left the hospital to help manage my BP until it regulated from my pre-elcampsia. I was on it for about two weeks and my BP started to go too low to where I was getting light headed and feeling like I was going to pass out. It was a weekend so the on call doctor told me to stop taking my meds and call my doctor Monday morning. I kept tracking my BP and it was great, seemed to be back to normal so when I called my Dr on Monday and told him I was told I could stay of the Labetelol, but I should keep tracking my BP to make sure it didn't go back up. Tuesday I notice that when I checked my BP all day it was normal but my pulse was high. Tuesday night I was sitting in church and out of nowhere I started feeling dizzy and I had tightness in my chest. My DH took me to the ER, and as I suspected my BP was quite high. They did an EKG, chest Xray and blood work, all of which came back normal. After a few hours my BP came down on my own, but my pulse was still elevated. The ER Dr sent me home and told me to make an appointment with a Cardiologist because he's not sure what happened. My neighbor has taken Labetalol before and said her Cardiologist told her she had to be weaned off of it and couldn't stop "cold turkey" (like I did) because it would cause all sorts of problems (like the ones I'm having).

Anyway, my whole point was. If you took Labetalol or something similar before did you stop taking "cold turkey" or did your dr make you wean off of it? If you stopped "cold turkey" did you have any problems? I can't get in with a cardiologist until next week, so I'm really hoping my neighbor is right and this is all just a reaction to coming off the meds. I don't think I could handle adding a heart condition to what I've gone through this month. TIA

JJohnson51208 · March 2011

It is probably a reaction to stopping labetalol cold turkey, but you should still follow-up with your cardiologist. I can't believe your doctor told you to just stop taking it (unless it was a really really low dose). Labetalol is a beta-blocker and not only does a beta blocker lower your blood pressure, it also decreases your pulse rate. I don't know if you monitor your pulse at all, but your doctor should have told you that if your pulse it below 60 you should hold that dose and recheck it again in a hour or so. One of the side effects of stopping a beta blocker (among other blood pressure meds) is something called rebound hypertension, which is when your blood pressure (and pulse if it was a beta-blocker) sky-rockets. I took it at the end of my pregnancy and even though I'm in the medical field and knew how to take it and wean from it my OB/GYN still did patient teaching on it. I hope that wasn't too overwhelming. Just keep an eye on your blood pressure and keep your appointment with the cardiologist just to make sure nothing more serious is going on. I also hope you're feeling better now!

MrsRiceARoni · April 2011

Thanks for the response! That's what I had been thinking too. It wasn't my Dr that had me stop taking it, it was the on call Dr. I think since by the time I talked to my Dr it had been over 24 hours, he probably didn't want me to start back up and than wean off? Atleast my BP hasn't acted up again other than Tuesday night when I went to the hospital. My heartrate has still been a bit high (resting in the low 100s), but it does seem to slowly becoming more normal. I have an appointment with a cardiologist next week, so hopefully he will just confirm that I'm fine and it was just because of the labetalol. Oh and the dose I was on was 100mg, my Dr said it was a low dose, but a friend of ours that is a pharmacist thought it was high so I'm not sure. I do monitor my pulse as well, I've actually been documenting my BP and pulse several times a day since Friday. So I'll bring those numbers in with me to the appointment.

Has anyone else taken Labetalol

Re: Has anyone else taken Labetalol

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