I’m going to defer that one to the MD’s and pharmacists, actually. As seen in the post above yours, there’s a whole lot I don’t know, and that’s not a question I’m equipped to handle. Sorry.
I can tell you that many (most?) people are on more than one class of antihypertensive drug because they work in different ways, on different parts of the body. Some open blood vessels, some get rid of excess water, some slow the heart…often people seem to need a multi-pronged attack to bring their blood pressure into a range that lessens the risk of heart attack and stroke.
I hope it goes without saying that, no matter what the side effects, you should NEVER change or stop your blood pressure medications without talking to your doctor first. Some of them you have to wean off of, and there are always going to be complicated risk/benefits to balance that are particular to each patient.
Lisinopril equalled anaphylaxis for me. Not a fun day. It seemed to be the correct drug for me, due to the polycystic kidney disease, but no.
Now I’m using Atenolol and all is good. Well, some side effects come and go (try explaining that only your big toes hurt like hell). Overall, I’ll take infrequent hurty toes than inability to breathe, feeling like I have bugs under my skin, and swelling up like a balloon.
I wish I could get back on it. My script ran out right around the time I got divorced, and with the divorce went my health insurance. My blood pressure is too damn high.
It shouldn’t be that expensive. Walmart has a 3 month supply for $10, if you get double your dose and take half a pill a day that is about $1.67 a month for a 6 month supply.
Last I checked, they would diagnose hypertension, and then give you a referral for follow up and an actual prescription. They’re set up for acute stuff like ear infections and pink eye. There’s been talk about changing that so that they can manage chronic conditions like hypertension, but I don’t know what the status of that is. Best to call first so as not to waste the fee.
You can check with your local health department for low cost clinics, but be prepared to wait.
If you are a Veteran, go to the VA and see what’s covered for you. Ours was incredibly helpful when my SO had no money and the disability was in appeals. Even if you don’t qualify for health care paid for by the VA, they have lots of information about other local options.
I take a diuretic, 12.5 mg of hydrochlorothiazide and 20 mg of Lisinopril daily. It was all very straight forward, no precautions or warnings and no side effects. Works like a hot damn.
My blood pressure used to hang around 160/100 with spikes up to 200 and now I’m around 125/80, fairly steady. I got myself a monitor.
What causes your spikes? For me stress can spike my blood pressure and add 60/40. The highest I’ve ever had was 200/120, but I was in the middle of panic at the moment. It went down about 40-50 points in an hour.
Its good HCTZ and lisinopril are working so well. For me each takes about 10 points off both my systolic and diastolic (which brings my diastolic down to the low 80s), but they don’t actually do much for the spikes. The calcium channel blockers work for that for me though.
I have no idea. took my monitor to work once and after lunch I checked myself to find out I was way way up. Checked it immediately afterwards. That stressed me out. I had several more for no apparent reason in the course of a couple of month while the doctor wanted me to make lifestyle changes first before subscribing medication.
I should add that along with starting the blood pressure medication I cut down on sugar and wheat as well as potatos and rice and eating lots of vegetables and meat, resulting in a 30 pound weight loss. Oh, and I quit smoking as well.
Lisinopril did the trick lowering my blood pressure, but I couldn’t tolerate the cough. I got switched to another medication that didn’t work as well but at least didn’t make me cough. Then I cut out alcohol and lost a bunch of weight and was able to go off HBP meds altogether.
I’ve been on it for many years now. No side efects except occasional dizziness, but I don’t know if it is to blame or the beta blocker I also take. Or maybe I just get dizzy sometimes. No cough. I can’t take NSAIDS or aspirin anyhow because of my gastric bypass, so no worries there. And certainly no one ever told be about laying down the first time I took it…my doctor put me on it rather than the three meds the hospital had put me on, so I was already dizzy!
We wish. I’ve become accustomed to having doctors NOT tell me half the shit I should know in order to use various drugs safely – especially things like discontinuation protocols. For many years, I’ve been in the habit of demanding and reading the package inserts for drugs I use. These documents tell me all kinds of nasty shit that no doctors ever told me.
Example: One doctor gave me clonidine (allegedly to control nasty clonazepam withdrawal symptoms, but it’s a blood pressure med too). Just reading the mile-long list of possible nasty adverse effects made me nearly faint. That’s how effective it is for lowering blood pressure! I was using other BP meds too (I forget which). The next doctor told me to quit the clonidine (“Clonidine makes people feel shitty.” – His exact words.) He didn’t tell me of the elaborate protocol for quitting clonidine when using it together with that other drug I was taking. (According to the package insert, it’s seriously important to quit those two drugs in the right sequence.)
I know that Lisinopril and Losartan are roughly interchangeable. I’ve got permission from various docs over the years to fiddle with the dosages. I just watch my BP closely, at those BP machines in various drug stores. And I go to various different drug stores, not the same one all the time. I don’t have much trust or confidence in my perfunctory HMO medical practices.
ETA: And forget about those “complicated risk/benefits to balance that are particular to each patient” – I’ve never known a doctor to go into that kind of detail with me. As far as I’ve been able to tell, that is just a medical fiction you read a lot about. More typical: Doctor prescribed drug. If it kills you, he then tries something else.
See, if things like that happened to me, I’d be dead. There’s no one here to call 911 for me when I turn seven shades of green and purple and pass out in the closet.