Altace

[evelyn1]

Question: I am noticing a lot of hair shedding. Different people have reported on boards that they shed from various bp meds. Have people noticed more shedding with diuretics or ACEI?

[Adiana]

Hello.

I am Adiana and I have recently been put on 2.5 mg of Altace in place of the 10 mg of Ziac I was taking. This was three weeks ago. I have noticed my blood pressure is uncontrollable as well as my pulse. I have bad headaches, problems with my vision, as well as a feeling of general malaise. I tried to donate blood today but was rejected because of high pulse---121 beats per minute as well as 169 over 117 blood pressure! YIKES! No wonder I feel like crap! I have asked my doctor to please put me back on Ziac but she won't do it---I was informed by one of the so-called "gatekeepers" at the doctor's office that I just had to "deal with it" until my next scheduled appointment which is not until the 18th of July!


This person also told me that my doctor said that we would discuss it then. I don't believe my doctor told that idiot to tell me that at all because that is not like my doctor. I don't usually call in with a problem unless it is pretty severe---I think this is just a case of some wannabe doctor's assistant taking it upon herself to blow me off! I am going to go and see my doctor in the morning and if I can't at least get to speak with her, well, then I am going to report it. This particular office has bad problems with giving decent customer service and you might as well forget about your doctor getting accurate messages from you because these people never turn in the correct information. I was told to come in anytime for necessary blood work that my doctor had ordered after fasting for 12 hours. I did what was asked but when I got to the office, I got told that I was just going to have to wait for "awhile" for someone to be able to do the work! I waited for 1 and one-half hours and still never got to do my tests. It does not matter whatever day you come in because there is never anyone to do the tests period! I am also going to tell my doctor about this as well! I hope she chews the crap out of these idiots!


Adiana

[Adiana]

I wanted to know if I should increase my dosage from 2.5 mg of Altace to 5 mg instead---should I do this to see if I can get any relief from my uncontrolled blood pressure? Or should I ask my doctor if I can increase my dosage in the morning? That is, if I am going to be ALLOWED to even talk to my doctor!

Adiana

[Adiana]

Well,

I was right. My doctor was not even told my symptoms! She has been notified by a really kind nurse there named Sharon who wrote down every thing that I said and then took the ACCURATE message to my doctor. I will be told whether or not to increase my dosage of Altace or to go back to Ziac by the end of today. I also mentioned that if the office staff was going to take messages that they needed to be trained in the art of taking an ACCURATE MESSAGE because they could cause someone some serious problems by not relaying the correct messages to the doctor. We shall see what happens.

Adiana

[BamaC]

I've been taking 10mg. Altace daily since March of this year when BP was 204/110. It took about 10 days to two weeks for it to really "kick in", but once it did it worked like a charm for me. My BP now runs 120's/70's, and I have no side effects at all, not even the irritating cough. Best of all I can go out in the summer heat without feeling so weak and light-headed that I'm afraid I'm going to pass out! That was the main problem I had last year when I was taking Labetalol and Lotensin. And when you live in the Deep South that is indeed a problem!