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jodi98 · 11-05-2010, 08:53 AM

My father is 65 yrs. old. In June he had a heart attack and didn't tell anyone until the next day. My mom got him in to his dr. and they ran test and had to put a stent in one of his lower valves cause he had 70+% blockage.
Now they have him on so many meds.

Zocor (for cholesteral)
Lisinopril (for high blood preassure)
Plavix (for blood flow and break down plaque)
Metoprolol ( reduces work on heard and helps beat regularly)
Bisoprol (cirrculation for blood flow)

He is also a cancer survivor twice so he is on morphine also

He feels sick all the time and is so weak. The side affects to these meds are awful and make him feel rotten. The Lisinopril says it could have flu like affects.

My question until I get him back to the dr. is why so many meds???
Some of them seem to be for the same thing. He wants to work out in his yard so he does even if he is feeling like crap and then really pays the price that evening. I just rearranged his pill schedual so he is taking them spread out to 4 times instead of half of them in morning and half at bed time hoping this may help. Has anyone else had to do this and I am sure that there are diff. meds that will not make him feel this way.

Any info or your own experiance would be great!

I am just a sad daughter who hates seeing such a active man go through this.....thanks, Jodi

pupcake · 11-05-2010, 11:48 AM

Are all the medications prescribed by the same dr? He is on 3 blood pressure medications, 2 beta blockers (the same type of bp med)

Call the doc's office and ask if he can cut any out. Write down all his side effects and report them.

Pup

jeda · 11-05-2010, 12:27 PM

They are not too many, After my MI, I got a few more, I would say they are the standard ones, except for the 2 BetaBlokers that, as it is already said, they seems redundant.

Before calling your Dr. the question is what his BP is?? It might be too low and this will justify some of the side effects, in the other hand, if the BP is OK, depending of the side effects that he has, there are several strategies to solve them... but as already said, the Dr. should be able to give solutions to most of them, generally by changing the medication.

Tiredness and depression, are standard side effects, not from the medication but from the state of his heart, mainly it will be dictated by the Ejection Fraction that he has.
For the first I got good results by laying horizontally at least 10 hours a day (including sleep time). For the second my cardiologist gave me more pills that I used for a while.

Did he made cardiac rehabilitation? It helps a lot.

As per the Pills distribution, I split the Lisinopril and the betablokers by half and take them together 12 ours apart, morning and evening, I think that taking only half doses at once, helps me to minimize the side effects. The statins at night and the others I take it at lunch.

Jesus

jodi98 · 11-05-2010, 04:36 PM

Yes all these are prescribed by his heart doctor.
My mother is a nurse and I will ask her about splitting the beta-blockers.
I thought it was strange he was taking 2 beta-blockers also.

I don't know the extent of damage that was done to the heart because he didn't see the doctor for a couple of days maybe even a week after the attack. He said when they did the ecocardiagram (i think that was the test)
he could see the fluttering in the heart valve they were looking at.
I do hope something can be done, because like I said I hate seeing him so sick and dragging himself around.
Thanks and hope to hear more from others!
Jodi

Machaon · 11-06-2010, 04:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jodi98

I thought it was strange he was taking 2 beta-blockers also.

Not only is he taking two beta-blockers, he is taking two "selective" beta1-adrenoreceptor blockers?! That is like taking the same beta blocker twice. I would LOVE to hear the justification for that from the heart doctor.

Quote:

Now they have him on so many meds.

Your dad is on a medication to help protect against future heart attack or stroke, a cholesterol medication to guard against plaque buildup within his circulatory system, an ace inhibitor which is a treatment against High Blood Pressure, and two beta blockers.

The Ace Inhibitor and the Beta Blocker(s) have two different approaches to lower blood pressure and they work well together.

Quote:

I hate seeing him so sick and dragging himself around.

Does he take all of his medications at the same time? This could cause unexpected side effects because of interactions between the meds.

Certain foods and drinks can also interact with heart medications and cause nasty, uncomfortable side effects.

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