Musing on side effects: Did a bit of... - High Blood Pressu...

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Musing on side effects

exDancer profile image
6 Replies

Did a bit of garden weeding this afternoon, and whilst my mind was empty I started thinking about side effects of medication (as ya do). My back ached and my feet hurt when I tried to kneel, I felt exhausted - and I felt cold even though the sun was shining. I thought back to the days when I'd have completed the little chore in 30 mins and then have gone on to mow the lawn. Today I've come back indoors for a cuppa and a 'sit down' - how pathetic!

I've tried so many BP meds I've lost count, and they've all had unacceptable side effects but my friend has been on the ones she was first offered 7 years ago - WHY?

Its amazing no-one's done a survey on this. Do people of a certain blood group/ethnicity/eye colour/etc react differently I ask? Does lifestyle, early years, heredity have any bearing? Such a study would seem more use to more people than an experiment I saw recently on TV to see whether you got wetter running or walking 20 yards through a shower of rain (the answer was - it made no difference).

I'm sooooo tired.

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exDancer profile image
exDancer
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6 Replies
Dillan75 profile image
Dillan75

Tell me about it!! I was so fit 2 years ago before I went on Warfarin , since then my body has gone to pieces, my muscles have giveni in on my legs , can't do gardening cos can't bend down much, I'm going to ask to change on to something different also am thinking of having the electric shock thing to get my heart into a regular rhythm( can't think what it's called ) Yvonne

exDancer profile image
exDancer in reply to Dillan75

I know nothing much about warfarin, except that when I was a girl on a farm we used it for killing rats because it thinned their blood and they bled to death, so for obvious reasons you will have to be carefully monitored. I guess that means you have a problem with blood clotting, and by the sound of it an irregular heartbeat too.

What led you to be prescribed this drug?

I didn't know there was anything wrong with me because I felt perfectly fit and I was very active (only problem was a fragile back which I'd had since my children were born (50+ years ago). I controlled this with painkillers as and when needed.

Then I developed gut problems and was diagnosed with coeliac disease (another story) and in amongst all the testing they discovered I had high BP. How were you diagnosed, if you felt fit before the warfarin.

I developed a persistent dry irritating cough - so they changed my meds, and changed them again - and again - and so on for 15 years! I just gave up and carried on taking the pills. (Losartan and bisropol for the BP and ranitidine and omeprazole for the cough).

I was a teacher, but had to retire early because I couldn't stop coughing - and you can't control a class if your eyes and nose are streaming during a coughing fit. I was 60, and ended up working for Asda. My husband moved into the spare room so he could get some sleep.

I realised my repeat prescription was overdue for a reprisal by about 3 years(!) and went back for an assessment yesterday. I'd been taking my own BP and took my latest readings in with me (130 or 140/80) but in the surgery it was 190/90.

She told me I'd tried every possible medication in the book, and that losartan couldn't be the problem because it metabolised in a different way to the others. So in other words - tough, carry on doing what we tell you and take the pills - I should have kicked up a fuss, I should have stamped my feet and insisted on a better investigation.

............... but I behaved like a wimp and came home with yet another handful of the same medication. I'm just too bushed and tired out to fight any more - I don't know where my oomph has gone.

What next?

123456S profile image
123456S

now thats an interesting idea ....... I wonder what the result could be ... there must be some that are settled on their medication and controlled ..........without the nasty side effects .......

exDancer profile image
exDancer in reply to 123456S

I have just come home after spending th afternoon with a friend on amlopidine and who has no problems with it, she is also on simvastatin doxazozine, gabapentin and co codamol and has had two minor 'episodes' which I think she called ITAs(?).

She considers her BP to be under control.

123456S profile image
123456S in reply to exDancer

thankyou .......

Raclette profile image
Raclette in reply to 123456S

To me that sounds ridiculous but what do I know!

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