Anyone on Coreg for Heart?

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DebbieB
DebbieB Member Posts: 161
edited September 2014 in HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer
I know there are several women who have had their Ejection Fraction go down from chemo and some have indicated they take Coreg. I ended up in the hospital last month with congestive heart failure at age 51. Apparently the chemo and rads I had 5 years ago caused heart damage.

I'm on 1 of every category of heart meds that you can be on and I know Coreg is one of the ones that really improves the function of the heart. I was started off on 6.25 mg twice a day and then after 2 weeks was bumped up to 12.50 mg twice a day. Unfortunately after about a week on 12.50 I started having problems with lightheadness in the morning so he cut me back to 6.25 mg. I really want to increase my dose so that my heart can get better and my Ejection Fraction will go up!

Just wondering what others who are on Coreg take and whether or not they have had any problems? Also, if you are on Coreg to increase your Ejection Fraction, how long did it take to raise it and what tests did they do to check to see if it had gone up? I had so many tests that I'm not sure what test was done to find out what my Ejection Fraction was!!!!

Thanks!

Debbie
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  • ps123
    ps123 Member Posts: 221
    edited June 2007
    My mother was on coreg for a while for congestive heart failure (nothing to w/chemo or cancer) and also had trouble at one point with the increased dose. I don't remember the doseage she had problems with, but using your example if she had trouble with the 12.50mg twice daily, he had her take 6.25mg for one daily dose and then 12.50mg for the 2nd dose of the day or vice versa (i'm not sure if it was the larger dose in the am or pm) then after a few weeks changed it to the larger dose twice a day. This seemed to work for her.

    They can use either a MUGA scan or echocardiogram to check your ejection fraction.

    Pat
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  • OkiePat
    OkiePat Member Posts: 9
    edited June 2007
    I take 12.5mg twice a day for ejection fraction. My Cardiologist also put me on Altace 2.5mg twice a day. I have been taking this for quite some time. The last MUGA showed that it had increased so I was pretty excited. I told the nurse that I sure would be glad to get off this med and she told me that sometimes you are on it the rest of your life. I have never been a med taker (not even and aspirin) until all of this showed up. I do have some light headedness but not sure if its the coreg or femara. It is nothing that has been a large issue for me.

    Take care.
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  • DebbieB
    DebbieB Member Posts: 161
    edited June 2007
    Pat,

    I'm glad you received such good news about your ejection fraction increasing! I am SO happy for you.

    What was your ejection fraction originally, what has it increased to and how long did it take for it to increase?

    My cardiologist wants to wait 6 months before he retests. He says he wants to give the meds time to work! I would prefer to see it gradually increase over time so I would at least know that it is increasing!

    Can you physically tell that it has increased? Or do you still have good days and bad days?

    Thanks for the info!

    Wishing you continued improvement!

    Debbie
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  • MarshaMay
    MarshaMay Member Posts: 95
    edited September 2014

    Hi,  my cardiac failure hit me like a ton of bricks in early May. I was devastated to have to go off Perjeta and Herceptin because the got me to NED. I'm Stage IV. My cardiologist let me have echos every three weeks.  I started 10-15. The first round of beta blockers and ace inhibitors got me to 20-25. I was stuck there throughout the summer and only on Aug. 29 was able to bring my numbers up to 30-35.  In the meantime I developed a brain met. It's always something. I was much too anxious to wait 6 months. I really needed to get my treatment started. My cardiologist advice was to go to cardiac rehab and refrain from alcohol and try to build lean muscle mass. My cardiologist doesn't care if I have an echo every week. It's non invasive and not expensive 

    Good luck. Matsha

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