Stopped Diovan--Hurrah--Frank619 is back!! - High & Low Blood Pressure Message Board

frank619 · 06-16-2005, 01:35 PM

Well, I am back, y'all. Like I said in my past thread, I did talk to my doctor and he went ahead and tried my little experiment. I have been off the Diovan for the last 2 weeks and my bp has stayed about the same, sometimes better. Today it was 104/86!! As part of the deal I cut with him, he did put me on Zoloft and a sleeping pill called Lunesta to see if my hbp is more stress/sleep induced than physical. If anyone out there has any experience with these, let me know. I am not sure if they are replacing the Diovan's work, but so far I feel the same as I felt with the Diovan. I have lost about 10 pounds and have tried to stay off the sodium--but this is mucho impossible. I was scared to get off the Diovan, but I just had to. And I don't regret it one bit. I am still jogging about 4 miles every two days. It may be too early to tell how my body will respond once the Diovan is completely out of my system, but so far--everything is fine. It does help that it is summer, and except for the Downing Street Memo briefing being on CSpan-3, nothing is stressing me out. Now, I begin my fiendish plan to rid my body of the zoloft and lunesta as soon as possible.

rander5 · 06-16-2005, 04:16 PM

That's awesome - congratulations!!!

How does the Lunesta work - do you feel groggy in the am

frank619 · 06-17-2005, 09:38 PM

Nope. No grogginess at all with Lunesta. But tell you what: make sure there are no emergencies in the middle of the night--like tornadoes or fire or burglars, because you ain't waking up... Its strength time must be a solid 8 hours and then it wears off fast. At least, that's what's happening to me. I want to get off of it cuz I don't like drugs in my body at all. The Zoloft has to go, too. They say you can't get hooked on them, but that's hard to believe. I do feel rested, though. I had been waking up at 3:40am every night for weeks and the lunesta has helped. Too bad. It's gotta go.

rander5 · 06-18-2005, 06:14 AM

I believe a lot of my bp problems are all anxiety related too - I told the doc I wouldn't take any bp meds until we tried to contain the anxiety and I think we have done that and my bp this am was 108/68!
Good luck with everything!

Uff-Da! · 06-18-2005, 07:44 AM

Woohoo! Glad to hear that you were able to get off the Diovan and that your BP is doing well.

I, too, was on HBP meds due to emotional causes. In my case it was extreme stress plus chronic sleep deprivation for years while I cared for my stroke-survivor husband. I've since also been able to get off the meds.

My doctor also put me on Zoloft, and I was on it for a year. I remember when I first took it, my thought was, "Wow! Is this what it feels like to be normal?" Because I had been a nervous, anxious person all my life, whose shoulder muscles were constantly tied up in knots, who couldn't sleep, etc. And Zoloft helped that. Unfortunately, in my sleep-deprived situation (my husband would often need assistance or supervision during the night), it allowed me to go to sleep too easily. I found that I'd fall asleep at the wheel (where I'd wake up when my head jerked as I dosed off) maybe a dozen times each way on the 20 mile trip to see my husband's doctor. And during the rest of the drive, my eyes wouldn't focus properly. After I drove off the road one time, I decided the Zoloft had to go.

But by chance, I'm now taking something else which has calmed my anxiety and largely eliminated the problem of chronic shoulder tightness. Magnesium. Yes, common old magnesium. My doctor had recommended it when I started getting nocturnal leg cramps frequently, but much to my surprise, it also greatly improved my tendency to be anxious all the time. For me it has almost the same calming effect as Zoloft. You might want to try it.