My Latest Visit To An Internal Medicine Doctor

After a long discussion about bone pain, she said, “Well, you know medications are poison right?” I said I don’t think you are supposed to say that! Especially after I just filled my pill container this morning with s — it loads of pills!

The doctor didn’t look like the doctor above, nor was he a she, but I can’t call him out with this story, right? I have a feeling he was about as young as her though and had the same kind of mischievous grin on his face!

I think he was just plain tired of our discussion and wanted to get on to the next old person he would be meeting with and that is why he talked poison.

Yes, that is what I am feeling and thinking about my condition. I will get a stress test to rule out blockages as he suggested, maybe in a few weeks he thought. To make sure my difficulty breathing at times is not my heart.

I took in a list of side effects to bring to his attention. He worked at a heart hospital and let me know that he is familiar with all the side effects. I told him I have most of them. I haven’t vomited yet, so that is one that I don’t have. That was on the common side effects list.

The more serious, call your doctor side effects are below:

Severe Side Effects

Rare but serious side effects may include (I have included my experience/comments next to the side effects I have experienced):

1. Shortness of breath or wheezing (yes, wheezing in the morning, out of breath when I walk just about anywhere and walk up my five steps to get into the house)

2. Swollen hands, feet, ankles, or lower legs (yes, sometimes worse than other times)

3. Fainting (I fell and don’t know what happened. I don’t think I fainted??)

4. Rapid, pounding, or irregular heartbeat (I am on the meds due to AFIB)

5. Weight gain (I love it when I can blame anything on weight gain, except my eating and little to no exercise!)

Contact health care provider (this is what it said with this list)

A long-term side effect of taking metoprolol

Bone pain — continuing ringing or buzzing or other unexplained noise in ears, dry eyes, hair loss or thinning of the hair, hearing loss, increased sensitivity of the skin to sunlight, and pain in the penis. Severe sunburn. (have your cardiologist send )

I thought it is a fun list though as who would think those side effects come from a medication to control AFIB? I didn’t.

Google is my best friend. The above information came from Medline Plus. Others say, don’t believe everything you read on google. Medical people especially say that.

I went into the appointment because of PT and bone pain. I have been to physical therapy for plantar fasciitis and the PT lady says, it is more than plantar fasciitis as my complaints don’t fit plantar fasciitis. “Please see your primary,” she said.

I am diabetic too and have not had neuropathy before. She says it may be neuropathy, but she thinks it is more than that! Isn’t that bad enough? What more than that can it be?

The PT lady put me on hold for a few months, meaning no more appointments for a while. “If it is a longer fix, then have your cardiologist send in another referral. After all, you came in to get an exercise routine that will fit you.”

I couldn’t get in to see my primary or her nurse practitioner, or the cardiologist who referred me to PT, so I was to see a new doctor. He works with my primary.

My doctors/nurse practitioners were on vacation. I am guessing it is because they are all parents, and it was a week before school starts and they have kid stuff to do. Vacation or school shopping.

I may see this new internal medicine doctor again and I may not. I suppose I will if the others are all on vacation together again! Maybe not though as I ended up with more questions than answers. One doctor fired me as I was too complicated. I suppose I get it!

New questions:

· Are all the medications I am taking poison? (I know the chemotherapy medications were labeled poison by someone, that I took 10 years ago.)

· Is it bone cancer? (well, I did think that once or twice before going in.)

· Am I going to need open heart surgery? (With the last balloon valvuloplasty, I was told that would be next)

· If you don’t get out of breath from plantar fasciitis or neuropathy, then what?

· Maybe I’m not taking enough metoprolol (never would have thought that before he said that!)

· Might need to change to another medication (I was thinking cut down on my dose?)

· I had to take one and a half pills, cutting down on the medication before due to side effects (I have been taking this pill for 3 years and some of my doctor visits may not have been necessary if they would have just changed pills then?)

Okay, I know I have said enough about this subject. I wanted you to know what medication can cause. Friends taking the above medication are taking it for high blood pressure. Not everyone has Atrial fibrillation (AFIB), or high blood pressure but many do.

At least when you get older! At a table of 5 friends, 3 of us were on metoprolol. Two from high blood pressure and one from AFIB.

The only way to stop this aging business is to not live. For now, my choice is to live life to the best of my ability. And that will mean more internal medicine doctors and more medications/poison!

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First published by Penny Press in Medium.