Post Stroke Mumblings — Part 16
Managing Modern Meds…NOT
1 year, 4 months after the stroke…I had hoped to have regained full control of my body.
I guess I got spoiled in the first four months, when I seemed to be making really good progress. Then things slowed down or basically plateaued. So I would see really small changes or none at all for weeks. Very disappointing. And very irritating.
Now here we are, 1 year, 4 months after the stroke and STILL I am having serious balance issues, STILL my left foot thinks it is from a different planet, STILL I have not regained full strength and mobility in my left hand.
Medications
Post stroke, there are a bunch of medications that they want you to take. Stuff to keep your cholesterol down, stuff to keep your blood pressure down, baby aspirin to help prevent blood clotting (to help prevent another stroke), water pills to counteract swelling caused by water retention caused by several of the other heart meds…the list goes on. Endlessly.
Side Effects
I appear to take a negative reaction to all of them, except the baby aspirin.
To be perfectly clear, it is openly acknowledged than there are many negative side effects to pretty much every single one of these meds.
The statin meds, which are the cholesterol controllers, were the first to create serious issues. They caused my joint pain to increase by about 80 percent. We tried various different ones with no improvement. Eventually, we settled on one called Simvastatin at a 10-milligram strength. Not great, but an improvement on the others. It does appear to be keeping the Cholesterol at bay.
And there is another thing. Based on my diet and lifestyle, my cholesterol should be PERFECT. So, why is it not, and why must I take this annoying medication?
“Age and genetics” Seems to be the only answer they have for me.
Blood Pressure
Annoyingly, my blood pressure refused to stabilize, so my doctor insisted I take meds for that. We have been through multiple types of blood pressure meds also. The side effects have been horrible with all of them. The latest one is Bisoprolol at a strength of 5 milligrams. Still lots of nasty side effects — digestive issues, stomach pain, nausea, extreme fatigue, headaches, urine retention, too much urine, joint pain, dizziness, bad balance…cool stuff — NOT.
The most annoying part is that it has not hugely reduced my blood pressure, which has a tendency to go up and down like a yoyo. The more pain I am in, the higher goes my blood pressure. WTF?
But, if I do not take the stuff, and the blood pressure goes even higher, hey, guess what? Another stroke would be on the menu.
Things that they say cause high blood pressure: Alcohol, smoking, bad diet, being overweight, stress …to mention a few, oh, and chronic pain. Maybe I should just start drinking, smoking and partying… apparently, a healthy lifestyle is no help. (The doctors continue to tell me it is all because of age and genetics.)
About the Pain
So I have a condition called OsteoArthritis. Simply put, it causes pain in the joints. Then we add in the heart meds with side effects that have exacerbated the painful joints. You see the issue, I feel sure.
The only painkiller I can take is Tylenol. Too much of that can cause liver issues. My doctor is okay with me taking it for pain. Because I suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome), I cannot take painkillers like Ibuprofen.) I try to hold off taking anything, but sometimes, the pain gets the better of me.
Unfortunately, the Tylenol only helps in a very small way. And since a lot of my pain is from something called Referred pain, it actually doesn’t help with that at all. Possibly, if I took something much stronger, all the pain would go, but unfortunately, I would be left as a soggy, subconscious zombie since the stronger pain meds have really bad side effects too. And are addictive.
Disclaimer: I know there are people with much worse pain than I. I can only speak from my own perspective.
End of rant. For now.
