Chris,
I bet you can tell whether or not your heart rate goes up with mental stress just by feeling it pounding in your chest and taking your pulse at home. I completely understand your concerns about your heart rate affecting your recovery and I can see why you'd be reluctant to do the treadmill test. A doctor would have to answer these questions for you. I can't remember--have you seen a cardiologist?

I took atenolol in 2012 for supraventricular tachycardia, but an EP Cardiologist told me that having an ablation was preferable to a lifetime of medicine. I had the ablation and it fixed the problem. Right after that, I started having head and face pain. I tried so many medications and amitriptyline was the only one that helped with the pain, but it also caused my heart to race. A headache specialist put me on 50mg of atenolol and my heart settled down.

After my MVD surgery, I weaned off the amitriptyline. A couple of weeks ago, my PCP told me to stop the Atenolol. When I stopped it, my heart started pounding and racing something fierce. I called him yesterday and he told me that my body got used to it and now I was stuck taking it forever. I hope he's wrong. I have an appointment with my cardiologist on the 28th.

The point of this long-winded story is that I think it would be beneficial for you to speak with a cardiologist before your body gets too used to the atenolol. If nothing is wrong, then you'll be reassured. And you can talk about the benefits versus risks of taking one med to counteract the effects of another. I wish I had done that.

Take care of yourself and keep us posted. Hope you have a restful weekend,
Cheryl