In October 2007 at the age of 69 I suffered a stroke whilst at the theatre in London. I was taken to St. Thomas's hospital where I was thrombolysed. I made an amazing recovery having initially lost my speech, use of my right arm and right leg. Within 5 days I was allowed home. I was given Simastatin, aspirin, ramipril, persantin and omeprazole. The Simvastatin 40mg initially gave me pains in my legs, but this slowly subsided. However, my biggest worry for the past 8 months has been the control of my blood pressure. On one occasion when I had to attend our primary care clinic because my bp had risen to 269/104 I was given Indamapide, when this failed to lower my bp I was put on beta blockers, these did lower my blood pressure but also lowered my heart beat to 40, causing me to pass out, so I was taken off the beta blockers. I was also taken off ramipril because of the awful cough which developed over the months. I then went on to Candesartan 8mg. When that failed to lower my bp it was increased to 16mg and then to 32mg.
On having my blood pressure checked yesterday at 4p.m. the reading was 189/104 - so we are back to square one. I have today started taking Losartan combined with hydrochlorothiazide (Cozaar - Comp) so we will see how that goes. I am also on 80mg of simvastatin a day, which is giving me headaches. Does anyone else have experience of any of these drugs please.
