acid reflux - cough

I am new to the site am writing on behalf of my husband. He has had his pacemaker for about 10 weeks. Since then he has been diagnosed with Atrial flutter and has been put on bisoprolol 2.5 once a day. They wanted to up the dose but he was so tired and out of breath with this he refused.

He has also developed a cough, a sort of needing to clear his throat continously and sometimes feels there is something stuck there. The GP though this might be acid reflux and has prescribed emoprazole 1 per day.
Although he has never suffered from heartburn and when he goes to bed he has no symptoms at all, but as soon as he gets up the coughing starts. No specific Food of drink seems to set it off at all. The GP also put him on a statin even though his cholestorel level is only 5.2. I know this may sound silly but after reading a few emails on the site I am wondering if the settings may be wrong on the pacemaker and this might be causing the coughing. At his 4 week check we queried this but was told, its working ok and that was that.

Sorry to go on a bit but does anyone have or had these problems. Who do we contact to get the pacemaker settings checked, We are in the UK. He has a Cardiologist appointment but its not for 7 weeks.

I am getting him to take some magnesium supplements as I thought this might help.

By the way he is 61 years old and until the pacemaker was fitted was very fit and active and not overweight.

I hope someone cam give me some help/advice on this

Thanks

6 Comments

Craft

by IAN MC - 2016-05-07 04:05:47

Sorry to hear that things haven't gone smoothly with your husband. A few observations on the points you have raised :-

ACID REFLUX : I think if the problem was caused by acid reflux the omeprazole would have worked by now. Omeprazole works by virtually switching off stomach acid and it certainly doesn't take 5 weeks to be effective

ATRIAL FLUTTER : Is the beta blocker ( bisoprolol ) helping or not ? If drugs don't work a cardiac ablation usually does ( 95 % cure rate ) I had atrial flutter , had an ablation, had normal heart rhythm restored and came off all drugs.

COUGH : There obviously could be many causes . Is your husband taking drugs for high blood pressure by any chance ? It is possible that a simple change to the PM settings could help as one of the leads could be stimulating a nerve which makes the diaphragm contract but as I said there could be many causes.

MAGNESIUM : It won't do any harm and may help with the atrial flutter but it really is an act of faith.

STATINS : GPS in the UK are financially incentivised to prescribe statins so I am slightly cynical about your husband having them prescribed with a total cholesterol of only 5.2 but your husband may have other risk factors which you haven't mentioned.

PM CHECK-UPS : You said that he had a check-up at 4 weeks so you need to contact whoever did that. I am in the UK and have the telephone number of my pacemaker clinic; any problems and I ring them. I don't think it will be any different in the Saltburn area where you live.

I think the bottom-line is that you need to contact your PM clinic a.s,a.p , clearly describe your husband's symptoms and explain that the actions taken by your GP don't seem to be working.

Best of luck

Ian

Cough and like a lump in my throat

by Lisalac - 2016-05-08 03:05:35

When I first got mine I kept having a feeling like there was lump at the top of my throat almost like phlegm. I coughed a lot with it too. I mentioned it to the doctor and he tough it might be part of the way my heart was throwing extra beats (PVCs, PACs). The blood gushing forcefully out might have been the reason. We raised my resting heart rate to see if this would eliminate or reduce the PVCs and thus stop the throat issues. It worked. Less PVCs and PACs and no lump in my throat. Heart rate increase was from 55 to 65. Hope he finds relief soon.

Check his medication

by johng - 2016-05-08 11:05:02

Craft,
there are some medicines used to treat Heart conditions which can cause this symptom.
One example is Ramipril, check with your doctor if there are alternatives to his current medication.
Best of luck,
johng

Cough

by Craft - 2016-05-09 01:05:07

Thanks you for all your comments. I really appreciate these. He still does get some atrial flutter but not as bad as when the first had pacemaker. So not sure whether the bosoprolol is working to some extent or whether things have settled since the op.

He doesnt take any meds for blood pressure.

The gp said he needed the statins because of the current situation with the pacemaker and the atrial flutter. He is also on the higher dose. 40mg.

I think you are right in suggesting we need to contact the pacemaker clinic and try and get in to see them and maybe alter the settings. The last time we went tho they didnt seem to be bothered as long as it was working.

He seems to cough a lot on exertion rather than when not doing anything.

Hello again Craft

by IAN MC - 2016-05-09 02:05:48

It is good to hear that the atrial flutter is responding to the beta blocker .

Let us know if his next visit to the PM clinic sorts out the cough problem.

I know it can be difficult to challenge your GP but it does sound to me that he/she is talking nonsense re your husband's need to take statins. Statins are taken purely to help prevent a plumbing problem ( i.e. blocking of arteries caused by HDL cholesterol ) and your husbands PM issues and atrial flutter are purely electrical problems to which the use of statins is totally unrelated.

He is now on a high dose statin which MAY cause excess tiredness , muscle pains , sleeplessness and type 2 diabetes ( or he may be lucky and experience none of these side-effects but it seems a bit daft to me to take statins if he doesn't need them ! )

Only my opinion, Craft, but it worries me that the UK is rapidly becoming the statin capital of Europe if not the world. I stopped taking statins and feel so much better having come off them

Hope your PM clinic resolves some of the issues.

Ian

acid reflux - cough

by Craft - 2016-05-11 07:05:26

Hi

Just an update, We phoned the pacemaker clinic today, was told more or less that it couldn't be the pacemaker which was causing the cough. They had never heard of this before.

Managed to get an earlier appointment with the cardiologist, brought forward by 2 weeks. So maybe he can shed some light.

Also having a trip to the gp on Friday to discuss the medications.

Hopefully we can get somewhere eventually. thanks again for all your help

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In fact after the final "tweaks" of my pacemaker programming at the one year check up it is working so well that I forget I have it.