I have had a really tough time trying to find a blood pressure pill without side effects. First I developed a cough from Lisinopril, then he put me on Losartan then Olmesartan, etc. After two years on those, my joints were in excruciating pain. My sister said to look at side effects when I told her the Orthopedics couldn't really find a cause. Sure enough, on not as common side effects was joint pain. He changes me to Toporol XL (same as generic Metoprolol), and within a month, all the joint pain is gone. After being on Toporol for a couple of months, I start getting this really bad pain in my side. They did CT scans and there is no reason I should have this pain. Then I look up side effects and there it is, on rare side effects or less common was "side pain". I'm just beside myself! So I go back to the Doctor and he has now changed me to a Thiazide diuretic (Maxzide) while weaning me off Toporol, but my blood pressure is now really high. Although I did sometimes have heart fluttering at rest (usually middle of the night), the Toporol did help with that. After reading this group, I wish I had never been on the Toporol because I have since found that going off can cause your BP to spike higher than before. What used to be 135/85 HBP with no medication is now 150/100 on the diuretic. He is now adding a calcium blocker and I'm worried that has it's own set of problems. I'm only 58 and I'm just wondering if any of you had any of these same problems with the pain in the side. Or has anyone been on the calcium blockers and any problems I should be aware of. I think I'm just overly sensitive to medication and am working on my weight (220) so maybe one day I won't have this problem.