Pain relief needed

[Leaandlinda]

My husband had his bypass 2 years ago and is stable on bisoprolol, aspirin, eplelerone, rosuvastatin and furosemide, however he has always had problems with his shoulder joints (worked in construction ), however the shoulders are extremely painful at the moment, disturbing sleep etc, can anyone advise the safest and strongest pain relief he could take, he just needs some relief now

[MichaelJH Heart Star]

Have a word with your pharmacist. They tend to be better than GPs in what drug you can take with another. For bad pain I take the occasional Tramadol ( prescription only).

[Leaandlinda in reply to MichaelJH]

Thank you, will definitely speak with them, combination of pain and lack of sleep is meaning that everything else seems worse

[MichaelJH Heart Star in reply to Leaandlinda]

If you do get a prescription for Tramadol start slowly as some people do not tolerate it. The occasional person becomes a "zombie" on one whereas I am fine on eight a day (2 X 4) the maximum dose.

[sos007]

Your husband does not need to take stronger pain relief pills as that will just compound his use of prescription medications each with their own side-effects. Tramadol is a narcotic and is addictive - ideally you want to avoid going down this path. webmd.com/drugs/2/drug-4398...

I had triple bypass in 2015 (age 52 at that time). I was on similar meds as your husband including the statin (rosuvastatin). I developed severe shoulder pain to the point that my rotator cuff froze and I couldn't move my arm. It then throbbed so badly I couldn't sleep. Upon investigation of the side-effects of each medication I determined that the statin (30 mg rosuvastatin) was the likely cause. In an effort to get off of the statin, I decided to aggressively change my diet and lifestyle. I slowly titrated down by 5 mg every 6 weeks while monitoring my LDL-C (against the advice of my cardiologist).

My dietary and lifestyle changes permitted me to gradually wean completely off of the statin over a period of 10 months (LDL-C remained stable during this time but temporarily spiked upon completely stopping the final 5 mg per day dosage).

The pain in my rotator cuff gradually diminished while I was reducing the statin dosage.

When I stopped taking the statin the pain completely disappeared.

At that time, my new dietary and lifestyle choices resulted in me also gradually losing weight until I leveled off at my body's natural weight (I'm a male 5'10" tall) at 155 lbs (I was 195 lbs prior to surgery). I probably lost too much muscle in this process and if I could do it again I would have done more weight lifting during this period. I work out with weights now and have regained a little bit of muscle.

Since I did not have a heart attack prior to my surgery, nor any other heart ailments such as heart failure, atrial fibrillation or arrhythmia, I also weaned off of the beta blocker (bisoprolol). My cardiologist did not have a weaning protocol for the beta blocker so I did it gradually on my own over a 2 month period. The weaning process generated a lot of anxiety. Read 'key practice points' in this link bpac.org.nz/2017/beta-block... which is an instruction set for doctors. In this instruction set, it warns to wean more gradually than I did - which is likely why I experienced the anxiety and occasional tachycardia.

Furosemide is primarily a blood pressure pill and also used for heart failure, kidney disease and liver disease. If your husband does not have any of those noted conditions and is only using it for lowering blood pressure, then he can likely wean off of that as I did if he lowers his weight as I did. I was getting dizzy spells as I dropped weight which indicated my blood pressure was too low.

Eplererone is also a blood pressure medication.

A few months ago stopped taking my daily baby aspirin as recent medical studies questioned the merits of this protocol given new evidence the that risks of internal bleeding are as great as the anti-platelet aggregation benefits. nytimes.com/2019/03/18/heal...

The study says you can stop it if 'you are healthy' - although I had bypass surgery, today I am otherwise healthy according to my quarterly blood tests.

Today I do not take any medication whatsoever and am in the best shape of my life.

It all begins with a healthy diet (mayoclinic.org/healthy-life... and daily exercise.

My cardiologist told me after my surgery that my heart disease was not cured, the surgery only bought me time - 10-15 years. If I didn't change my diet and lifestyle I would be back under knife again or die before then.

Message me privately if you want more details.

You are never too old to start eating and living a healthy diet and lifestyle.

Good luck.

[Leaandlinda in reply to sos007]

Thank you so much for taking the time to go into so much detail with regard to the various medications and your own experience of reducing meds/lifestyle change.

My husband equally had no heart attack, but had a triple by-pass two years ago and has been diagnosed with heart failure. We have a review appointment with the nurse on Thursday so will discuss whether indeed the statin may be the root cause of the problem.

Many thanks again, will let you know how it goes

[sos007 in reply to Leaandlinda]

You are very welcome. Dietary and lifestyle change can potentially reverse heart failure as it is a disease of atherosclerotic or calcified arteries and the heart muscle.

ucsfhealth.org/conditions/h...

My echocardiogram pre-surgery described my heart as an organ bursting at the seams with leakage everywhere. My 2-year post surgery echocardiogram following my dietary and lifestyle changes described a perfectly normal functioning heart with no leakage.

If your husband wants to be healthy and stop medications, he has the power to do so, IF he is determined.

Studies show that 70-85% of diseases are caused by dietary and lifestyle choices and are not genetic.

Green leafy and cruciferous vegetables such as arugula, broccoli, kale, and rapini, and spinach, among others are vasodilators (relax blood vessels to allow better blood flow).

Processed foods, as well as sugar and equivalents (including alcohol) are the progenitors of atherosclerotic plaques (heart disease). Fried foods and seed oils are also inflammatory foods.

Watch these videos:

youtu.be/ZSpB-j5DL9E(Not working as expected?)

youtu.be/K3ksKkCOgTw(Not working as expected?)

youtu.be/f3iOlRUQkrw(Not working as expected?)

If you choose dietary and lifestyle modification, it is best that you follow the same healthy diet and lifestyle as your husband so that he can psychologically cope with the changes.

Read this as a resource:

pritikin.com/your-health/he...

Remember, you can take control of your own health.

Let me know if have any more questions.