Making a choice

Get a new doctor 

It's hard to say if those problems are side effects of an ACE inhibitor and a diuretic, or just age and life.

?If your readings at home, with the pills, are all good, well, that's good news of course, but you should feel free to try skipping one or both and see how it goes, as long as you have your own meter and use it you can quickly see what's what and get right back on as needed.  Yeah, doctors seldom say that but that's why doctors are such a pain, I don't know what they're telling them in med school but it needs an update.

?As for that 140/90 bit for old folks, don't believe it.  That might be "OK" but that's different from "good", especially over a longer term.  I'd say if you can get under 132/88 or thereabouts without drugs, fine.  If you're in between, well, that's your decision.  I'm mostly better now but sometimes it jumps up and I take the ACE/ARB, and that knocks it back down.

Hope that helps.

There was a direct correlation between starting and continuing the medication and these issues arising. I had no symptoms prior and my pharmacist said the symptoms come on slowly over time.

agreed.,,,, here is my thing.. I am not at a point in my life to take 3 new meds.. to fix the new problems that the prior 2 meds caused.. and so on and so on.. thatss why all the med companies are getting rich and why all the PD s keep recommending meds,, before BP meds.. I was in perfect health..

 

I hope they took your BP before the prostate exam, that sounds like a potential recipe for disaster. Its not uncommon for hypertension to be treated symptomatically, investigations without other symptoms rarely turn up anything useful though I hope she did some blood tests.

What shouldn't be common is a Dr saying they like the drugs your on, its not her taking them, the important thing is whether you are prepared to tolerate the side effects. Its already well known that compliance with drug treatment is quite poor and with attitudes like this its not surprising. There is no need for you to agonize over the decisions, its your body, and if these are the only drugs you've tried, there are lots of ways your Dr could have helped you to manage the side effects. Your also right that at the BP levels you mention the benefits of taking the drugs are not huge.

I do have some sympathy for the view that a new Dr might be a good idea, but you could simply try to be a bit more direct & see what happens. Tell her you are no longer prepared to take the Conversyl (the most likely culprit) and ask her for ideas about stopping or changing. Ignore any attempts to order you to continue, simply go back to talking about when you stop it. If she wants you to spend your life recording your BP, simply say no, you've more important things to do, perhaps offer to take it a few times to assess any changes if there are no changes why bother.

If you do end up changing your Dr, there are websites around that want peoples feedback about the medical care they receive, use them, a Dr shouldn't be acting like this.