Hi,
Post heart attack I’m on 2.5mg ramipril, so relatively low dosage. From meeting with my cardiologist last week he want to now double this to 5mg as my blood pressure still a bit high.
This may sound a really stupid question, but will it be a matter of just taking two of my current dose or will my GP need to provide a brand new prescription for 5mg? I haven’t spoken to my GP yet so hence the question.
Many thanks.
Cardiologist normally sends the request to your GP who will alter your script. That's what happened to me, worth chasing with your GP fairly soon to see if its on Clinical Portal. No need to double your current dose as you will run out and may end up having none! Just carry on until your next repeat.
The GP sorted out increasing my ramipril dosage. Weirdly, I got capsules for the 2.5mg dose and then little tablets for the 5mg dose. I now need 7.5 mg so I get 2 prescriptions, one for 5mg and also one for 2.5 mg, because they don’t make a 7.5 mg tablet. I’ve also had to have blood tests for kidney function when starting and increasing the dosage. My surgery is very good on those kind of checks.
I also had Ramipril doubled to those doses. It seems fairly standard procedure and is a bit arbitrary perhaps as the BP taken hastily during an appointment is likely to read artificially higher than one you take properly at home.
I merely took 2x 2.5 pills together until they were used up then switched to the new dose which have a red stripe instead of the yellow. I didn't find it had any detrimental overall effect and didn't really change my BP which anyway had been at a reasonable level. I suspect more impact on BP would be made if the patient lost weight if they needed to, and got more exercise
After my initial post heart attack checkups at the hospital, my cardiologist wrote to my GP asking him to up titrate Ramipril and Bisoprolol with a target of 10mg, or as high as I can tolerate towards this dosage .
I was on 2.5 of both initially . I think it’s standard practice to move this task onto your GP, who will take care of it, along with the appropriate periodic blood tests, to make sure it doesn’t adversely impact renal and liver function. For Ramipril, I’m currently on 2.5 in the morning and 3.75 in the evening. So far so good on this. The Bisoprolol, my GP held at 2.5mg due to low ish heart rate
I did make a telephone appointment with my GP, following the cardiologist’s letter, to request the revised prescription, but think they would have contacted me to make the changes if I had left it
I hope that helps.
RamIpril can have severe side effects including facial swellings. My friend is on regular antihistamines because of this. It's rare but not unknown.
thanks for all the replies, very useful and helpful 👍
For future reference and for anyone else who's consultant increases their medication or dosage:
always ask them to give you a prescription for a supply from the hospital pharmacy, to tide you over until your GP gets the prescription - just in case you run out or the paperwork is delayed
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