High blood pressure !

[colin calverParticipant @colincalver]

If you were born before 1st April 1947, please read. For several weeks last sept- nov could hardly walk due to sciatica in left leg. Eventually got appt for MRI scan of spine. Few days before scan pain just disappeared so was in two minds as to cancelling scan. Decided to go and have scan. A week or so later got call from doctor at 8am telling me not to drive, Scan had discovered aneurism on aortic artery measuring 70mm dia normal is 20mm. NHSinto overdrive, on the table cut and diced, home after 7 days. Have since discover that if born after 1st April 1947 you should be screened for this condition on reaching 65. Bearing in mind that there are no signs or symptoms for this condition and survival rate for burst aortic aneurism is only 2%, if you not had a scan, ASK. Google AAA operation for more info

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

One aspect of my Dr. visits was that the first one gave me Tramadol, took one and went to bed. Woke up in the morning having had NO pain releif at all. Took dog for a walk and about to come home and felt woozy so when I got back i went to bed at 11am. Woke up at 1300 and had the most tremendous headache so took two Paracetomol and decided no more Tramadol. Totally no pain relief.

Next Dr. gave me Co-Codomol and took the first dose and went to bed and had dreams all night and woke up washed out. Consequently bunged up stomach, I would rather swallow golf balls than take Co-Codomol again.

The following weeks the only pain relief was a hot water bottle and the acute back pain slowly subsided to a dull ache over some weeks. Unable to step with the left leg and everything was on the right leg.

It was the 2nd. Dr. who gave me ramapril and that immediately excluded NSAID's for pain releif. I did ask about it but he just waved his hand in a no-no gesture. I now understannd that some people cannot use Opoid medicines and they do not work for them.

Now, today have received an appt. for the Lumbar Inj. for the 12th Feb. Will have to find someone to accompany me as they asked for this. 3 to 4 hour wait as they do not know who is where on the daily list.

Edited By Clive Hartland on 29/01/2020 13:36:52

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

Well I myself have had 2 stents. Head cancer, Bladder cancer. The cancer was treated back in 2008, all been good since. The heart attack 2012 & apart from taking the cocktail of 5 tablets a day, all pretty good. It's a subject we spoke about at our bikers café some time ago. What was said that had we been born 20 years earlier, then we would all be dead now. retro speaking of the time thing. As treatment has come so far now that lots can be seen just with a blood test. I have to have my MOT once a year, this time around the nurse was going through what bloods to take for the different test. She asked would you like me to test for Prostate problems

I was dumfounded by this & enquired. She said yes we can see a lot of cancer symptoms in blood. Something to do with Antigens & Proteins.

Steve.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Further to Colin Calver comments there are alternative treatments for AAA, I had EVAR (Endo vascular aortic repair) carried out 3 years ago in the Addenbrooks specialist treatment centre Cambridge.

I had been monitored at at 12 month intervals to check the size of the aneurism after it was discovered when I had a full body scan in 2006, recommended an op when the size reaches 60mm so Colin was overdue for the op.

I believe either method for repair now has to be carried out at an area specialist centre, outcome of operation results are available on the net for each of the surgeons practising at these centres, my procedure was carried out by one of the top surgeons in the country in this field.

Emgee

[SteviegtrParticipant @steviegtr]

The other thing that has come on leaps & bounds is the Keyhole/ micro surgery, so much less intrusive. Much less chance of complications too.

Steve

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

pgk,

I had been told to avoid grapefruit, actually I think it came up by accident in the rehab class, but didn't know why. So thanks for that info.

Steviegtr,

I've had keyhole surgery to remove a rather large gallstone & the associated gallbladder. An anecdote:

Came home & took to bed along with 5 dressings and tramadol to take if I wanted/needed. In fact very little post-operative pain other than the soreness one gets after being cut open so didn't bother with the tramadol. Along comes the nurse to change the dressings and asks if I am getting pain. "Well, not really, just the expected soreness, but nothing to bother about!" Triumphantly she yells, "But that's pain!" At which point I shut up, after all, you can't argue the point about the different types of pain and the relative strengths with someone who doesn't seem to understand.

Then, some months later, and still holding 27 tramadol tabs and not actually knowing what they were, I asked my GP if I should keep them. A funny look and the comment that no, I should hand them in followed. It was a further two or three years before I discovered what they were.

Co-codamol.

Or rather codeine. As others have discovered, codeine does indeed cause a rear end blockage, however, my very kind Nurse Medicine Practioner dished out Senna, Dioctyl (Docusate SOD) & Laxido to counteract the blockage. It did work, but probably because I started the codeine (60mg by the way) a day early, it took a few days before the blockage unblocked.

Incidently, before this episode, I was unaware that somehow Codeine & Paracetamol work together to increase the effectiveness.

Peter G Shaw

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Interesting, I find that I generally prefer pain to the side effects tramadol/co-codamol/naproxen type pain killers.

Got prescribed bucketloads for back pain, made me feel awful, but doing a few simple excercises off the NHS website sorted my back in a couple of days.Now if I get a twinge, I just do the stretches before it can become unpleasant.

Neil

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

I have not seen this mentioned but I will bring this up. If You'all are taking lisinopril and develop a cough or choking reflex, the drug is known for causing this. For Me it was eating slightly dry food, such as dry chicken. It made spectacular coughing episodes especially when in public, naturally. A woman in a restaurant clued Me in on this as She recognized the cough. Google " lisinopril cough" if needed. I quit taking it and the cough went away.

[martin perman 1Participant @martinperman1]

Mark C,

Thats interesting to know, I've been on Lisinopril for 10 plus years but no dry cough yet.

Martin P

[not done it yetParticipant @notdoneityet]

I was put on Ramipril after my op. I never suffered from the ‘ramipril cough’ until I got stung by the bees. A change to Losartan has avoided that reaction to stings.

I also pass on the statin for a month or so if my knees play up. Doctor said muscular side effects yes, but never heard of joint trouble. Well, my knees play up occasionally and the symptoms quickly disappear on stopping the statin. Every time! As my cholesterol hovers around the two mark, it doesn’t bother me too much. 10mg Atorvastatin is my prescribed dose. Changed from Simvastatin several years ago for some reason, but can’t remember what.

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

No wonder the NHS is in a pickle keeping all you coffin dodgers alive

Mike

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Neil Wyatt on 29/01/2020 10:43:58:

having to get up for a wee with a full bladder at 3 a.m.

Time may come when even that seems like "halcyon days"

[Enough!Participant @enough]

Posted by Chris Evans 6 on 29/01/2020 07:59:00:

And here's me about to book in to see GP because I don't feel as lively as usual…… At 71 maybe time is catching up with me ?

Maybe. But it could be something much more serious. I would encourage you to get it checked out as soon as possible. If it (the tiredness) seems to go up and down a bit, make sure they do the blood work during the tired period.

From someone who's been there.

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Colin Calver,

I was born after 1/4/47 but not heard about entitlement to scan and never offered one. Maybe during umpteen scans on diff. machines 3years ago, if there was an aneurism prob. they would have picked it up then, although they were actually looking for something else, cause of my complaints about chest pains. I told the that if it was indigestion like they said, it would be restricted to the centre not random pains all over the place. Final scan on a diff. machine, they immediately said were keeping you in, bypass next week! Following Fri. afternoon, double bypass, next Tues. morning, come on get dressed you're going home! Anyway, loads of pills to take for life. Now on 3rd station which doesn't give me seriously bad leg muscle aches. Aspirin caused internal bleeding. Ramipril caused apparent drunkenness. As last summer wore on so I felt ever more grotty, tired chest pains diff. to prev. so stopped taking the lot and not looked back. Now have more energy, sleep better, dont stagger about like I used to, chest pain gone away, whoopee! I was left overnight after op. on a meat trolley in the middle of the ward as no beds. All 3 heart op wards bunged out. (Sussex County Hosp. who didn't have a very good rating then) Alls well that ends well as they say and now OK.

John

[DMBParticipant @dmb]

Mike Poole,

Yeah! When you see the axe about to swing, you duck!

[Raphael GolezParticipant @raphaelgolez]

Interesting discussion gents. Appreciated all the experience here and reading your posts. The field fo Medicine is always dynamic. New research and land mark studies pop up left and right and I can barely cope with it. I'm a Geriatrician and proud to work on our NHS. I agree it is not perfect but one of the best in the world as I am a consultant in Internal Medicine in the Philippines before I migrated here in the UK some 15 years ago. I also accept that there are excellent doctors and clinicians and others are not so blessed (putting it in a nice way). Although I'm sure that most of them are doing what's best for their patient. A good clinician can pick through the difficulty of presenting complaints of the patient and have a very good and sensible working diagnosis and plans. I also supervise our young doctors and being a clinical supervisor myself I always emphasise a very good history taking and clinical examination to solve and have a very good management plans. We are also super stretch in our service in the NHS, this is a highly stress environment to work with and sometimes we also get tired and exhausted. I also admit that we are not perfect. Medicine is an art and always challenging. I just hope that our NHS is here to stay as it is very important to the British population.

As with regards to medication discussed here, Ramipril is a proven medication and it has been around for a long time. It is a family of medication called ACEi (Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor) first discovered from a venomous snake (which cause BP to drop). Captopril is the first of its kind. Directed towards lowering the "after load" from the heart. The mechanism is directed towards blocking the ACE (see above definition) thereby causing dilatation of the blood vessel systematically (arterial side) and as a result lowers your BP. This is just one way to drop BP. Physiologically there are other ways.

BP is dynamic and can vary depending on any physiological response, pathological or disease (cardiovascular, renal, endocrine etc), emotional and stress, exercise, medication, etc. BP needs to be monitored in order to diagnose HYPERTENSION per se. 24 hour abulatory BP monitoring is the go to test to clarify this.

We can talk medicine especially geriatric medicine as I love this field but of course it is a very broad topic. Your own GP can explain your condition to you however they are very hard to pin down (I myself have never seen my GP since my old GP retired) and yes even as a consultant geriatrician I need my GP to prescribe my meds for my gout! Most of the GP in my locality was my trainee foundation year 1 junior doctors several years ago!!!

Keep the discussion coming gents!

Raphael

 

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 29/01/2020 19:49:52

Edited By RAPHAEL VAL GOLEZ 1 on 29/01/2020 20:15:25

[SamsarandaParticipant @samsaranda]

Have recently returned from 4 days in hospital with flu and pneumonia, the treatment was excellent and the hospital very clean, I reflected on the changes in attitude in hospitals over the years. I remember many years ago the attitude of consultants and senior medics was at times very abrasive and condescending, some treated their patients very badly, I remember many years ago being a patient in a Naval hospital, didn’t help that I was Air Force, the surgeons there didn’t speak to their patients, communication was via the nursing staff, most bizarre. I for one am very thankful for our health service, especially as now most of the arrogant doctors are very definitely in the minority.
Dave W

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Posted by not done it yet on 29/01/2020 18:05:10:

snip/ Changed from Simvastatin several years ago for some reason, but can’t remember what. /snip

I can echo that, Jan2016 had a lung X-ray and liver ultrasound as prelim to starting to take Methotrexate for Psoriasis and the ultrasound revealed an Abdominal Aortic Aneurism 36mmH x 25mmW x 35mmD and was put on 75mg soluble aspirin and Simvastatin. Long story short..sudden appearance of increased frequency and urgency to urinate and inability to drive less than an hour without needing to – urgently.- or else Complained to doc and was changed to Atorvastatine when all returned to normal.
(AAA has remained same size since through several follow-ups with Vascular specialist)
DaveD

[GeorgineerParticipant @georgineer]

Posted by pgk pgk on 29/01/2020 11:22:43:

Trying to see a GP here is almost a joke..choice between 6 week wait ater having to discuss things via phone with assorted practice personnel or go wait for many hours in a room full of infectious disease…

My wife's a nurse, and she told me that if you suspect that all isn't well with your heart, the magic words are "chest pain".when speaking to the doctor's receptionist. it certainly worked for me!

George B.

[Peter G. ShawParticipant @peterg-shaw75338]

Maybe I have been lucky, but I have had very good NHS service over the last 12 or so years.

Starting with Menieres, my consultant, once diagnosed, offered me an operation to stop the dizziness in two days time. Couldn't do it, so a week later. He used gentamycin, or rather the side effects of gentamycin to kill the little hairs in the semi-circular canals. Ok much reduced hearing, but no more dizziness.

The gall-bladder operation was done fairly quickly because I let it be known that I was available at 24 hours notice. That was a comical one. I started off with my Northern Irish GP, taken over by an Asian consultant, passed on to a Polish surgeon, and on the day dealt with by his registrar who I can only describe as a rather dapper black African (absolutely no offence meant). The only doctor who was English was the anaethetist. This, by the way, is in North Cumbria.

Then the heart attack. Once I "pressed the red button" I was whipped in to my local hospital, then transferred to the other hospital, had two stents fitted, and back out exactly one week later.

And now the lung cancer. Reported the cough to my GP, two days later had an X-ray, followed by urgent attention to remove some of the liquid in my chest, a CT scan and then a meeting with the Respiratory Consultant at which point I was given the bad news. All within 2 weeks. That was followed by a referral to the Oncologist and placed on a Chemotherapy drug within a further 3 or 4 weeks.

All in all, I have been very pleased with the NHS service. And most importantly I have been struck by the friendliness of the consultants, most of whom introduced themselves as Hello, I'm John Doe, or whatever.

Peter G. Shaw

[Ian Skeldon 2Participant @ianskeldon2]

I am a mere 62 years old but seen more than my fair share of drama's, thankfully I have come through everything ok. For the last 8 years I have had irregular heart beats, it has gradually got worse so about 6 months ago I went back to the GP, he said I was in normal sinus but my BP was a little high, I explained that I have already been told that I have paroxysmal AF, he didn't believe me so looked through my notes, Oh yes he said, we will get you on a monitor again.

That showed that my heart rate can be between 31 and 242 beats per minute. Having already been on a couple of different tablets which failed to stop this happening I was sent to see a top cardiac consultant. He looked at various graphs and said that my sinus node was firing off every where and I would probably need open heart surgery rather than catheter ablation, he then went on to explain some of the risks with what I had and what he was going to do.

I decided against the surgery as the odds on it being successful were at best 70%, but several big risks and lots of minor risks that would be life changing, his final summary was, 'lets see you again when your 65, at least you won't have to worry about going to work then'. So I just hope it get's no worse and maybe have a better outlook at 65.

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

I am 70 and have to have Lisinopril and Indipamide for slightly high blood pressure, or I wouldn't be allowed on the waiting list for my second Knee replacement.

[EmgeeParticipant @emgee]

Posted by old mart on 29/01/2020 21:41:52:

I am 70 and have to have Lisinopril and Indipamide for slightly high blood pressure, or I wouldn't be allowed on the waiting list for my second Knee replacement.

Is that knee replacement on the same leg as before ?

Emgee

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

No, I had the left one 18 months ago, and am waiting for the right. The left was full replacement and lining the patella, and the right hopefully will be partial on the inside half.

[MortyParticipant @morty]

Hi to Clive Hartland:-

I am also having a few problems with spinal problems.

I have been suffering with cervical spondulytus for about 4 years now,on My third consultant now first one said I was a candidate for spinal decompression and stabilisation, didn't seem interested after putting me off for about 2 years,then just told Me to lose weight, with the second one I got as far as the pre-op ,then heard nothing for two months then got a phone call telling me they could not do the surgery because I lived outside their area (?), Third and current one tells me that after looking at my recent scans that my symptoms should be worse looking at the scans and anyway he does not want to risk surgery after my (forgot to mention) heart attack last year,my cardio god signed me clear for surgery last September!

Anyway,on to my lumber spine problems,had same symptoms as You have but with right leg about 2 years ago,had a lumbar spine injection (was worried too but had no problems with it,cleared the pain up within 1 hour!)

Identical pain returned recently,so saw my consultant again this week,asked him for another injection and……..he told to loose weight!

Having a fresh lumbar MRI later this week,then got to wait to see my consultant in three months to see if I am skinny enough for another injection,for which I will then probably have to wait six months for!!!!!!!!I

I wish I could afford to go private and get sorted out,all i want to do is do my last four years to retirement, it really is getting me down.

Rant over!!!

Hope you get some great help with your suffering,try not to worry about the injection,I would have another one tomorrow if I could!

Chin up, Pete

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