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New to the world of Hypertension Meds
Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Jan 22, 2019 | Replies (21)Comment receiving replies
Thanks for your response. I was started on lisinopril about 2 1/2 months ago, now 40mg, after a sinus infection and insomnia raised my BP up to 200/110. Then one evening a couple weeks ago, I awakened, and found myself fully awake and energized. Thinking this was very unusual, I decided to check my BP, and found it to be rising, and it rose to 203/110, which headed me to ER. Two nights later, at bedtime, I found again my BP had risen to 203/110, so I headed to an ER, and was given a prescription for clonidine to use for future BP spikes. Living in fear of future nightime spikes is giving me more insomnia, and my provider then gave me metoprolol a couple days ago, and this helped lower my BP to 130/70, and seems to be keeping the spikes at bay. However, early this morning I had stomach pain at 6 out of 10 rating, which took 4 hours to suddenly go away, and was wondering if the metroprolol was the issue. I am nervous that this will be a continuing issue, and it is not helping the insomnia either. Do you have any insomnia from your BP meds? By the way, I am 66. Thanks for your welcome!
Replies to "Thanks for your response. I was started on lisinopril about 2 1/2 months ago, now 40mg,..."
Hello @wigreenthumb
Many of us on Connect have discussed the problem of sleep and the use of Metoprolol. I tried it for several weeks and then called my doctor and he switched me to another beta blocker, Atenolol. It also works on BP and heart rate but I do not have the same side effects as I did on the Metoprolol. Here is a website that discusses Metoprolol, https://medlineplus.gov/druginfo/meds/a682864.html.
If you scroll down to "Side Effects" you will see stomach pain as one side effect. On other websites I have also seen sleep difficulties.
If you continue to have these problems, your cardiologist could probably help you find another med that would help you without these side effects.
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Hi, @wigreenthumb. Sounds like you're well on your way to resolving some of your most troublesome symptoms. It's good to hear that Metoprolol worked to bring your blood pressure down. It's hard to guess whether your stomach pain might come from Metoprolol, but I'd be surprised at that. I have been on Clonidine myself for a few months, and it was effective at bringing my blood pressure under control as well. In my case, the Clonidine compromised other medications, so I moved off it. I hope you won't worry so much about bedtime BP spikes, unless your personal medical team (not the ER staff) counsels you to be especially concerned about them. Higher levels of BP are expected as we age (I'm 83), although 200/110 is beyond those expectations and worthy of special attention. Insomnia has never been a problem for me, even these days; if I lose sleep once in a while at night, it's because of some social or financial problem, and I make up for lost sleep with a nap of an hour or two the next day. I hope you can establish a strong conversational relationship with your medical team so that you can get timely answers to your questions and concerns without going to the ER. Martin