My Test... - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

Random2 · 05-27-2004, 12:52 PM

On Lotrel & Atenolol.... B/P was 113/70 3 days ago

Out of Lotrel.... Just on Atenolol 111/70.

The only other thing that I take is 2 mgs of xanax. Wonder if I ever had high b/p in the 1st place.

33, perfect weight, all blood tests, EKG perfect, everything perfect. Ever since I have gone on b/p meds (I have isolated white-coat, so the doc. put me on meds. 16 months ago). Since that time I have gone from feeling great the majority of the time to experiencing everything from stomach aches in the morning to depression to more anxiety+++.

Stopped taking one med, because I ran out & my b/p went down. Really wonder if I belong on this stuff in the 1st place. I do have times when it will run 130/80, but that is the worst.

Saw a new doc. in April that said that she wanted to just leave me on Atenolol & take me off of Lotrel. She also wanted to wean me off of the xanax. Strange how my b/p will shoot up when I tried that, but not when I take xanax & don't take the b/p meds....

I wish that there were docs. that believed in anxiety & benzos to treat it. If someone has white-coat I believe that it is more anxiety related then blood pressure related. I know the arguement that docs. have is "what happens when you are under stress at other times"? Well, when I take the xanax I handle it much better then when she is trying to wean me off & it does more than any b/p med. that I have ever been on.

My message to the 3 docs & 2 psychiatrists that I have seen since my 1st panic attack 16 months ago, benzos aren't bad at all in moderation.

2) There is something called anxiety that doesn't have to be HBP, especially when all tests are negative for a 33 year old.

3) If an-anti anxiety drug (benzo) is working, don't try to wean the patient off of it & put them on an SSRI like Paxil. I felt like I had a 5 day stomach flu.

4) B/P measurements at the doc. aren't a true measurement of blood pressure imo.

It seems that the medical community has been brainwashed. No wonder I have white-coat.

zuzu8 · 05-27-2004, 01:08 PM

Axe-

I agree with you about the benzos. They work well for me as needed.
Listen, ol' pal, why not discuss with your doc getting off all BP meds entirely for a couple of weeks...even a month. Tell her you will be vigilent with home monitoring. You'll know soon enough if the Xanax alone isn't doing enough. It's the only way you are ever going to know for sure if you need the BP drugs.

I weaned off my meds a while ago on my own as a "test" to see what was what, since my average home BP is 110-113/60's-70 on straight Diovan 160mg (sometimes BP was even lower in the 90's/60's!) All was well for two weeks and then BP started to creep up. And creep....and more...and ...more.
Back to 160/98. Drat and double drat. This all happened in spite of Valium.

zuzu xx

Random2 · 05-27-2004, 01:59 PM

Good idea, but I'm not supposed to see her again until July. I have seen her 3 times so far.

1st time she tried to wean me off of Xanax... big mistake.

2nd time- I took multiple blood tests (CBC, Metabolic Panel, T4 & had a EKG). Everything is cool.

3rd Time- She said that all of my tests were fine & that she couldn't prescribe more than 1 mg. of xanax a day even though I was used to 2-3. She recommended some psychiatrists. ***???? She scheduled a follow-up for 2 months with a nurse prac. for a b/p check. I could do that on my own.
She said that I might be pre-diabetic, because my glucose was 103???? Pre-diabetes doesn't even start until 110 & diabetes is 126 & higher. Atenolol also raises glucose.

I now sit here struggling with my 2nd beta-blocker (Toprol did the same thing to my stomach). This never happened before the b/p meds. I don't know what to do. All of the pharmacists+ that I speak to think that it is incorrect for her to even say that I have pre-diabetes at 103. All I know is that some days I feel fine & others the Atenolol effects my stomach. The only thing that she wants to do at this point is check my b/p again in 1 1/2 months. Why? I have checked it myself for 16 months. It was 111/74 on the lousy atenolol & 113/65 yesterday after a long day at work. I already switched doctors once, because he claimed that Altace & Toprol were great drugs. He was also against benzos & claimed that they were junk. Well the way I feel some days on Atenolol is like junk. Xanax never makes me feel anything but relaxed. What is the problem? What should I do.

This gets really old. According to all of my comprehensive tests, I'm healthy. I cut out one b/p med. & my pressure went down. I'm still taking 2 mgs of xanax a day, but I had to find a different specialist (not a psych.). My regular doc. like the other 5 that I have gone through doesn't understand the correlation between anxiety & hbp.