Back on amlodopine and not happy!!

Posted , 6 users are following.

Hi everyone, I would love someone to give me some pointers as I feel I am going mad.  I will give a brief (if pos) lowdown.  About 18 months ago I was diagnosed with high bp - about 150/90 average.  My GP put me on Zemtard 180mgs, after a year of feeling tired and putting on weight, breasts very large etc, I asked to have my meds changed and went onto amlodopine, firstly 5mgs but he felt my bp was still high and then 10mgs, I felt again very woozy all the time, tired and generally a bit blurry.  After a few months of this earlier this year I asked to be changed as I was fed up and so was put on Ramipril (ace inhibitors 10mgs) as he said we should try a different type of bp medication.  This caused huge spikes in my bp in fact I felt I was going to fall over.  Sooooo I am now back on 5mgs of amlodopine and today feel rubbish, woozy, various pains, no energy.  I am fed up with all of this, I give the medications plenty of time as I know some people say to 'stick with them' but nothing seems to change, after 18 months I am at a loss as to what to do?? Has anyone else experienced this? I would love to hear from you.

Thank you.

0 likes, 8 replies

8 Replies

  • Posted

    Hi Joanna,

    i know it happeneed to me and after 18 months of different types I was ready to give up and just take my chance.

    In the end they took me off everything including diuretics, which by then had damaged my kidneys and I was started on a low dose of candesartan. This was the sixth one I tried and like you I gave them all a fair trial, but would not stay on amlopodine longer than three weeks as I had all the side effects and a few more.

    Luckily I am still tolerating candesartan and I found out it is one of the expensive ones so they start you off on the others first.

    Good luck and remember you are the one who knows how you feel not the doctors. Stand firm

    Jenny

    • Posted

      Thanks Jenny, this is such a relief as I truly do feel like I am losing my mind, difficult to describe to friends and family and GP's only really interested in the figures, as you know as long as numbers are good they are happy.  I will try and talk to my gp and see if he will change me to candesartan.  I am truly losing the will to live and this has given me hope.

      thank you. biggrin

    • Posted

      I was on amlodipine and after 18 months swapped to felodipine which I've recently unilaterally stopped taking, I'm just fed up of swollen ankles that I can't walk far on.

      I also take a special type of beta blocker for which I am given diuretics. I have a blood test every year (at the hospital form the gastro). What concerned me about your post was the kidney damage from diureticsm as I have been on mine for three years.

      Could you elaborate a bit more, like which diuretic and what particular test showed up the damage - because I am due another blood test soon, which covers a lot more than the standard GP one, but I will make sure I definitely have the one you had.

    • Posted

      Sorry to be so long answerin, had to look up name and dosage. As far as I know a standard blood test always shows your renal function ,so if anything was wrong it would be flagged up. It seems to be the creatinine levels they look at. But always ask.If you are on diuretics that test should always include renal results.

      I think my kineys were suspect before, but no one knew so when I was given a simple diuretic it  not only brought my blood pressure down ,but  also did some damage. It was bendroflumethiaside 2.5 mg daily and I took it for six weeks only.

      As my previous post shows I was then put on all combinations of drugs to bring my pressure down and after the first five failed miserably they finally started me on a low dose of candesartan, which appears to work fairly well. I also have a blood thinner and now levothyroxine as last year was diagnosd with thyroid cancer.

      Hope this helps.

      Jenny 

    • Posted

      Thank you for that, I'll dig out my results from last year and look for the creatinine levels.

  • Posted

    so sorry for the mess with your blood pressure I too am having that having one right now 174 / 98 trying to get it down it starts with feeling like I have a panic attack I take some klonopin for the panic attack and finally wind up taking a little extra BP Med it lasts for a few hours I just feel really weak and weird I have a doctor's appointment in a month it's hard to get into Cardiology they've been helping me with this problem but it's just comes out of nowhere I feel like I'm going to go nuts from it too I just wanted to straighten out we people that have this problem are scared all the time can't get our bearings straight my family doesn't know what to do they support me thank God for that but what can they do except be there I hope you feel better and I hope I feel better I'm at the verge of tears right now because I'm so tired of it get better soon okay

    • Posted

      Diana:

      If you are in the UK ask your GP to send you to a Hypertension referral Centre as your BP is high enough to meet the criteria. The main hospitals have one

      As the consultant there told me, cardiologists are very clever people and do thing that I cannot do but thet don't understany BP like I do.

      If you google, hperension referral centre you will find them..

       

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