Back in 1997, after my husband passed away from a long illness, my doctor, within a week of his passing, put me on blood pressure meds. This med was called Ziac and the chemical component was bisoprolol fulmarate and hydrochlorothiazide. This is a beta blocker and a diuretic. I was kept on this for 11 years in spite of the fact that it did nothing to control my blood pressure. When I was first put on it, my pressure was 144/80. Now keep in mind I had been taking care of my husband for 10 years with a terminal illness. Ten years of stress and it was only 144/80. Anyway, after 6 years, I developed really dry, swollen hands. They would itch like crazy, then swell and feel like I had millions of needles under the skin trying to break through. Then they would split open and hurt like, well there is no words to really describe the pain. So the post office, where I worked, sent me to a dermatologist. His answer was steroid creams. Shortly after I started having problems with my hands, I developed a severe kidney infection. So now I am dealing with bloody hands and a kidney infection. I started wearing cotton gloves to soak up the blood and surgical gloves over them to contain the blood. After several visits to the so-called dermatologist, he decided I must be allergic to some of the industrial chemicals that I was being exposed to in my job. And I was trading off antibiotics with the kidney infection. I would finish one and within a week go to another. In this mess we did allergy testing with the chemicals that I would supposedly come in contact with through handling the mail. I was told I had an allergy to paraphenelinediamine. It is used in ink. Well, not really. Most inks are now soy based. But the so-called dermatologist had decided that that was what was causing my problems and I had to leave my job. Well, I was not about to leave my job when I only had about 15 years to retirement. So I suffered. The post office furnished me with the gloves I needed and was understanding when my hands swelled so much I couldn't work. And it took a year to finally clear up the kidney infection.
So I delt with the hands until 2007. I took an early retirement and gave up around 2000 per month in my retirement. All this time my blood pressure is running around 155/55. I kept calling attention to this and none of the doctors listened. Oh it is low dose; it won't hurt you. My hands did not clear up after I left the job. And I was getting sicker and sicker. Then in 2009, I made a trip to Denver to house sit for my son. I was so short of breath I could not walk across the room and my feet and legs were so swollen. I said nothing to my son. When I got home, I called the doctor and told the nurse I thought I was going into congestive heart failure and I needed a timeline so I could put my affairs in order. She told me it was the blood pressure meds and to come in and they would confirm it. Needless to say I was very, very angry. Think Mt St Helens when it exploded. When I got there, I told the doc that I wanted to get off the meds. His answer was, " Well we have to get you on something else." Nope. I am quitting alltogether. How do I do it? Oh it is low dose. You can just stop. That in spite of the literature telling me otherwise. So I called the pharmacist and she told me how to step down off it. Within 2 months my cholesterol was down from 230 to 130. My tryglycerides were from 250 to under 100. I felt fantastic. Fast forward to October of 2014. I had a physical. Everything checked out. But my blood pressure was 125/70. He pushed for more blood pressure meds. I said no. There was no indication of any pre-diabetes. November I let him talk me into another bp med. This time it was triamterene/hydrachloeothiazide. And he assured me that it was totally different from the first me.
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