WARNING: this post contains graphic descriptions of bloody nasal discharges. If you do not have a fetish about boogers and blood, read a gardening blog instead.
Yes, this is another side effects sad sack whiny story. As it is gross, I will try to keep it short. However, if you are turned on by gross stuff, by all means reread it several times.
Like anyone, on rare occasions when I’d blow my nose there would be a little blood on the hanky. Nothing unusual. However, since starting the combination of Teveten Plus, Adalat XL and Lipitor (none of which may be responsible—and one problem is, who knows?—I also take ‘baby’ aspirin to help prevent a stroke)…uh, where was I?
Oh yeah. I started that combination of meds November 22, 2006. Staring in early January, 2007, I began to notice that when I blew my nose (which has always felt stuffed up) there was blood on the tissue. Not just a speck here, a bit there. Nope. Fairly large splotches of bright red blood on the pure white tissue. I also began to notice, as I, uh, felt around in my nose, hard crusts. The hard crusts were congealed blood. This is disturbing.
I must add: I do NOT like digging around in my nose. Normally I do NOT look at what I blow out of my nose. And, if you are thinking the worst, nor do I eat it.
In addition to Hypertension, I have sleep apnea. That condition involves you not breathing for significant amounts of time while asleep. In my case, I was tested in a hospital and stopped breathing for a minute at a time. This condition, if untreated, can lead to congestive heart failure and other problems, not to mention you’re tired all the time because you ain’t sleeping so good. The treatment is not a medication, but instead a breathing machine. The machine at your bedside, pumps air through a face mask into your nose all night long. When going to bed, say good-bye to romance and hello to Elephant Man.
It appears that, possibly, the constant air pressure through the breathing mask, combined with the prescription medications opening up my blood vessels, leads to some rawness inside my nasal passages. This irritation leads to some bleeding, and crusts forming. Hence, when I apply pressure by blowing my nose, the blood on the tissue. Followed by the large pieces of bloody crusts.
(If you are reading this and getting off on it, ugh.)
So one very unpleasant side effect of the medications I am taking (which have indeed significantly decreased my blood pressure, I hasten to add!) appears to be blowing up blood. When, that is, I blow my nose.
While we’re at it, I may not have mentioned occasional eye sight problems. Apart from ‘floaters’ (black spidery dots in the corner of your vision, which can occur at my age), sometimes when I wake up in the morning everything is blurry. I have three pairs of glasses: reading, computer glasses (a form of progressive lens), and distance glasses (a bifocal with the lower portion adjusted for reading). None of the three help. Everything remains blurry. I can read, yes, but it takes an effort. Watching television is much less enjoyable.
There is no predicting when this will happen. Normally, my eyesight can get a bit blurry when I’m very tired. But this particular blurryosity happens whether I feel stressed or calm, fine or unfine. I gather, again, it has something to do with the blood pressure affecting my eyes internally, with the focal length changing as the blood pressure changes. It happens once every two or three weeks. Usually it lasts for much of the day.
And oh yeah, my gums are still inflamed--but not as much.
I know the medications are worth it, and that playing the odds I won’t have a stroke by suffering these side effects is worth it. I know that. Know it know it know it. Yep, I am grateful for what the medications are doing for me, and, yes, I know that life is a bowl of bloody tissues…ooops, cherries!
Showing posts with label Adalat XL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Adalat XL. Show all posts
Sunday, February 18, 2007
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Hypertension 9: Western Medications vs. Chinese Herbs
In terms of the medications, what are the differences between mainstream Western medical treatment for Hypertension and the “alternative” Chinese treatment?
Western prescription medications are easy to take: just pop 'em like cheeseburgers, onion rings & a coke.
Herbs? Initially they came in a variety of small packets. I opened each packet and dumped the contents into a cup, then added hot water to the contents, stirred and drank.
The Chinese medications were changed regularly, depending on my reactions. The prescription medications were changed after I set up an appointment with my doctor to tell him I was concerned about the negative side effects—often after taking the prescription medications for two months.
Prescription meds worked just like anything Western: blunt, unsubtle, direct—like a hammer to the head. But they worked. Each brought my blood pressure down.
Side Note: actually I did not take my blood pressure every day, as I did with the Chinese treatments. So, who knew what the actual impact of the prescription meds were? During the Western treatment, I took my bp two or three times a week, in the mornings, using one of those semi-accurate blood pressure machines in the local drug store. After starting the Chinese treatment, the Chinese Medical Doctor took the readings herself three times a week. I continued to take readings two or three times a week at the drug store, in the mornings.
My blood pressure was generally higher in the mornings—155 or so--and then dropped by the end of the day (when the CMD would take it). I did not take my own readings more frequently while taking the prescription medications because I wanted to avoid becoming “overmedicalized”. Some people become obsessed with their Hypertension, taking readings all day long. I did not want my condition to dominate my life. A good Western Boy, I wanted to pop a pill and forget about it. Or, drink some tea.
The Western pills worked from the waist up, the herbs from the waist down. The Western meds’ negative side effects were generally all in my head (memory, energy, focus). With the Chinese treatments, the negative effects were more below the waist: I pooped a lot, which left me, well, pooped…at times, I had cramps. It was more work, in its way, to continually adjust to the regularly changing herbs than it was to the less frequently changed prescription medications.
In both situations I was a guinea pig. Each medication had to be tried on me to see its impact. There was no way to know in advance how either treatment would affect me. Until we reach that future promised us by Walt Disney on his tv show in the 1950's (I am STILL waiting for my rocket boots, Walt!), medications remain a crap shoot (with the herbs, quite literally). Everyone is different, everyone reacts differently. You only know what impact the medications will have after you have taken them.
As a patient, I still had no real control.
Western prescription medications are easy to take: just pop 'em like cheeseburgers, onion rings & a coke.
Herbs? Initially they came in a variety of small packets. I opened each packet and dumped the contents into a cup, then added hot water to the contents, stirred and drank.
The Chinese medications were changed regularly, depending on my reactions. The prescription medications were changed after I set up an appointment with my doctor to tell him I was concerned about the negative side effects—often after taking the prescription medications for two months.
Prescription meds worked just like anything Western: blunt, unsubtle, direct—like a hammer to the head. But they worked. Each brought my blood pressure down.
Side Note: actually I did not take my blood pressure every day, as I did with the Chinese treatments. So, who knew what the actual impact of the prescription meds were? During the Western treatment, I took my bp two or three times a week, in the mornings, using one of those semi-accurate blood pressure machines in the local drug store. After starting the Chinese treatment, the Chinese Medical Doctor took the readings herself three times a week. I continued to take readings two or three times a week at the drug store, in the mornings.
My blood pressure was generally higher in the mornings—155 or so--and then dropped by the end of the day (when the CMD would take it). I did not take my own readings more frequently while taking the prescription medications because I wanted to avoid becoming “overmedicalized”. Some people become obsessed with their Hypertension, taking readings all day long. I did not want my condition to dominate my life. A good Western Boy, I wanted to pop a pill and forget about it. Or, drink some tea.
The Western pills worked from the waist up, the herbs from the waist down. The Western meds’ negative side effects were generally all in my head (memory, energy, focus). With the Chinese treatments, the negative effects were more below the waist: I pooped a lot, which left me, well, pooped…at times, I had cramps. It was more work, in its way, to continually adjust to the regularly changing herbs than it was to the less frequently changed prescription medications.
In both situations I was a guinea pig. Each medication had to be tried on me to see its impact. There was no way to know in advance how either treatment would affect me. Until we reach that future promised us by Walt Disney on his tv show in the 1950's (I am STILL waiting for my rocket boots, Walt!), medications remain a crap shoot (with the herbs, quite literally). Everyone is different, everyone reacts differently. You only know what impact the medications will have after you have taken them.
As a patient, I still had no real control.
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