I awoke the other night at 3am as usual expecting to be in a full blown CH.  But, to my surprise, the discomfort was all together different.  It was a pain in my stomach, similar to nausea, only much much worse.  It turns out it was acid reflux.  Severe acid reflux. 

I didn't know the "rules" about taking Verapamil.  I missed my second dose of the day, so I took it when I remembered.  The problem was that I took it at 9:30, with orange juice, and no food.

Oops!

Woke up at 3am, threw up every half hour until 10:30am.  Finally fell back asleep and got out of bed around 4.  I broke a lot of blood vessels in my eyes, and now they're all filled with blood.  On top of that, I did end up getting a CH around 5am.  Fun fun.

Moral of the story, pay attention to the medications you are taking, and the recommendations about those medications.

Hard to believe it was the verapamil. I used to take it for years at a time, both by itself and with other drugs (including some pretty ass-kicking antibiotics). Never, ever produced even a flutter in the tummy for me.

Not fun. Good moral.
This is a side effect of Verap for some.

"If the patient experiences any of the following serious side effects, he should stop taking Calan-Verapamil Hydrochloride and see the physician for necessary emergency medical assistance: An allergic reaction including difficulty breathing, choking of throat or swelling of lips / tongue / face or hives.; unusually faster or slower heartbeats, shortness of breath, fainting, abnormal behavior or psychosis, symptoms like jaundice or swelling of the legs and ankles. Besides all these some other side effects such as: unusual headache, fatigue or exhaustion or tiredness, trouble sleeping or insomnia, vivid dreams, hair loss, nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea and increased needs of passing urine may be experienced by the patient for which he should continue taking the medication but consult his doctor to report such developments.
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Years ago when I would first get in bed I would begin coughing and have some pain in stomach (never throwing up however).  This went on for days.  I went to doc and they did all kind of test, xrays, etc. He though respiratory problem.  Gave me sprays and all kind of crap.  Nothing helped.  I later went to my ENT (I have horrible allergies) and was talking to him (great guy) and he said oh that reflux.  Told me at the time protonix was the best but very expensive, so for time being to take 2 Pepsid every night an hour before going to bed.  I did and everything stopped.  I continued taking pepsid.  Later I had a colonoscopy and during visit with gastro I told him about my reflux so while I was out he he scoped my stomach as well as colon and intestines.  Later he said everything was fine, he felt it was the meds I was taking for my CH that was causing the problem and put me on protonix.  It solved the problem, but it is very expensive (now generic but regardless what they say in this case generic protonix not the same) so I now use as suggested by my good old ENT OTC prolosec.  So that verapamil while I think good for CH is killer on the ole stomach.