Tablets for the rest of my life..

[Karis 11]

Hey buddy.

 

If it helps, think of those tablets as a life line.

 

Or, failing that, your regular M&M fix!

 

I know it might seem weird now, but in a few months you'll be popping them without a thought.

 

On the plus side, never say never. Good diet and exercise could turn the need for medication totally on its head!

[Harry O 10]

Just be glad that you are alive, my wife hasn't been so for 6 months now and until her death was on far more medication than you are. Live life to the full.

[mojo1 10]

I'm on semi sodium valproate for the rest of my life as I'm Bi Polar. I have to have blood tests every 6 months too and to top it all off they have a vile aftertaste that lasts for hours.

 

I tried another medication (I would have been on that for life too) Olanzapine, but that caused me to gain a lot of weight in an impossibly short space of time.

 

It's one of lifes trials. You can be healthy on pills or unhealthy/dead without. Which is the lesser of those evils?

[EdnaKrabappe 14]

Me too. It's a small price to pay for pain reduction.

sulphasalazine

I also go through ibuprofen like no tomorrow.

Apart from the horrendous cost of tablets I have to take, (iron levels affected so i have to take high dosages of those too) and i've got asthma too, that doesn't like cold weather so have to use my purple inhaler at the moment

. I'm thinking of getting one of the monthly perscription thingies.

Luckily my blood tests have now been reduced so less effect on my life.

Edited April 21, 2010 by EdnaKrabappe

[Gormenghast 60]

After a recent hospital visit it was found that I have high blood pressure and now have to take Ramipril for the rest of my days. I am healthy, eat sensibly and exersize often so it came as a surprise to me, then after a recent blood test at the doctors came back I am now told that I have to take Simvastatin every night too !! My cholesterol was less than 5 ?? I was told that it is just a precaution as hypertension and angina runs in the family Great !! No more grapefruit for me then Gutted.... I hate taking tablets plus I have to have 6 monthly blood tests from now on.. So much for leading a healthy lifestyle eh ?

 

It's all part of life's rich tapestry. I'm on lifetime tablets too. But I'd rather it had been diagnosed than to die prematurely.

 

We should be grateful for the advances in medical science that allow us to take these drugs and allow us to live longer. Giving up grapefruit isn't such a big deal is it anyway. I've not missed it yet.

 

Keep taking the tablets. I don't like to be taking them either, but the alternative is......

[bizzle 10]

After a recent hospital visit it was found that I have high blood pressure and now have to take Ramipril for the rest of my days. I am healthy, eat sensibly and exersize often so it came as a surprise to me, then after a recent blood test at the doctors came back I am now told that I have to take Simvastatin every night too !! My cholesterol was less than 5 ?? I was told that it is just a precaution as hypertension and angina runs in the family Great !! No more grapefruit for me then Gutted.... I hate taking tablets plus I have to have 6 monthly blood tests from now on.. So much for leading a healthy lifestyle eh ?

 

Sorry to hear about you being ill. I think sometimes it is the luck of the bad straw. I have a friend who like yourself is fit & healthy. She religiously follows a really good diet yet was diagnosed with cancer earlier last year?! Some illness are unexplainable.

 

In relation to your cholesterol a couple of years ago yours would have been fine, really good infact however with the changes of goverment guidlines in the NHS in relation to health targets they seem to lower the target of cholesterol levels every so often. I think at the moment the correct or "normal" cholesterol range is under 5 which yours should be fine or it may have got lower like 4.5 which is ridiculous.

[Greybeard 10]

Anyone put on statins should be aware of the possible side effects. I was put on them by a vascular surgeon even though my cholosterol level was only 5. After four months I was feeling knackered all the time and weak to the point of getting upstairs being a struggle. This situation had crept up on me quite gradually but eventually I suspected the statins and checked up on the side effects.

 

This page was a real shock and then I remembered a TV programme I had seen about the side effects, - on CH4 I think, so I stopped taking them about five weeks ago. I don't know if the effects are reversible but I hope so. One of my symptoms was that I started needing a nap in the afternoon just to keep going and this need seems to have disappeared over the last couple of weeks but the weakness remains.

 

The one really annoying thing is that neither the surgeon who prescribed them or my GP who said she wanted to see my chlosteral level down to 4 has bothered to organise a further blood test to see if the statins were having the desired effect in the six months I've been taking them.

[skippy_54 10]

After a recent hospital visit it was found that I have high blood pressure and now have to take Ramipril for the rest of my days. I am healthy, eat sensibly and exersize often so it came as a surprise to me, then after a recent blood test at the doctors came back I am now told that I have to take Simvastatin every night too !! My cholesterol was less than 5 ?? I was told that it is just a precaution as hypertension and angina runs in the family Great !! No more grapefruit for me then Gutted.... I hate taking tablets plus I have to have 6 monthly blood tests from now on.. So much for leading a healthy lifestyle eh ?

 

I was an athletics coach I ran and played football and ate healthy,I have the same things wrong with me now.

I have recently been told I have stomach cancer and today been told that I cant have the operation to remove it because of the angina and hypertension so dont worry about not eating grapefruit,make the most of life I shall be doing for the up to eight years they say I have left.

[bizzle 10]

How can all these tablets be safe to take if they have such side effects?

[bizzle 10]

I was an athletics coach I ran and played football and ate healthy,I have the same things wrong with me now.

I have recently been told I have stomach cancer and today been told that I cant have the operation to remove it because of the angina and hypertension so dont worry about not eating grapefruit,make the most of life I shall be doing for the up to eight years they say I have left.

 

Hey Skippy, sorry to hear about your diagnosis of stomach cancer, how are you? ((if that's not too broad a question)) . Is there no other treatment they can offer you?

[skippy_54 10]

Hi bizle,yes they are considering some sort of light treatment that burns the tumor away,but thats the one that gives me eight years. They are going to give me more info next week.I am sure that all the different meds I am taking are responsable for different things going wrong with me though, around twenty tablets per day plus two inhalers and the angina spray I also have sleap apnea and wear a mask to breath at night plus an arthritic back and joints. I do know that some that I take have contributed to renal failure.But hey fifty years ago I wouldnt be here now.Thanks for the concern but there are worse off than me,at least I have food to eat and doctors at hand,its the wife who is going through hell at the moment not me.

[bizzle 10]

Hi bizle,yes they are considering some sort of light treatment that burns the tumor away,but thats the one that gives me eight years. They are going to give me more info next week.I am sure that all the different meds I am taking are responsable for different things going wrong with me though, around twenty tablets per day plus two inhalers and the angina spray I also have sleap apnea and wear a mask to breath at night plus an arthritic back and joints. I do know that some that I take have contributed to renal failure.But hey fifty years ago I wouldnt be here now.Thanks for the concern but there are worse off than me,at least I have food to eat and doctors at hand,its the wife who is going through hell at the moment not me.

 

Hey Skippy, thanks for your reply.

 

It sounds like you have a lot to deal with medically on top of your diagnosis. I have heard about the light treatment on tumours & it does have a good success rate. Have you much support from the hospital in relation to support groups & organisations that you can contact?

 

((sending hugs))