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Wow, it sounds so familiar to myself! I have all the same symptoms and went down the path of testing BP and blood glucose with similar results. How did you get

by url00 3y ago

Wow, it sounds so familiar to myself! I have all the same symptoms and went down the path of testing BP and blood glucose with similar results. How did you get the doctor to prescribe the drugs? Or was it a pretty straightforward diagnosis?

hwillis 3y ago
Definitely does not sound straightforward given all the things they tested and excluded. It also very atypical and medicating specifically for this would be unusual. That said it sure sounds like it perfectly treats the root problem. If you have symptoms like Raynauds and POTS (note that POTS can be hard to demonstrate, so may be less convincing to a doctor) then Amlodipine or similar may be helpful. If you take it and you feel lightheaded when standing up, or have trouble with exercise or fatigue, you probably don't need it and it isn't good for you. You may have more consistently high blood pressure rather than transient spikes if you don't have POTS, or if you don't react immediately to cold temperatures. In that case an angiotensin blocker like Telmisartan may help. It can take weeks to become effective, vs Amlodipine should show effects in just a few days. If you have high blood pressure then just telling your doctor you want Amlodipine or something will probably be enough- convincing insurance will be harder. Amlodipine can be used off-label for Raynauds. If you don't have particularly high blood pressure and haven't systematically tried to exclude causes it will be harder to convince your doctor. They might let you try it for a bit to see if it helps, and the generic isn't too expensive.
- url00 3y ago
  Thanks for the reply! I'll keep researching.
llm_nerd 3y ago
To add to the great reply by hwillis, I just went to my doctor with a concern about my blood pressure and he prescribed amlodipine with follow-up bloodwork to make sure there aren't other factors. When the amlodipine wasn't effective he upped the dose with another set of bloodwork, and then he added telmisartan and lipitor (coupling it in with the amlodipine for convenience) given cholesterol issues with my bloodwork. There are a lot of different blood pressure medications (like a ridiculous array of options) and I let my doctor decide. There are side effects but I have suffered zero of them, and now that the blood pressure is under control my bloodwork across the board has been improving significantly.
- url00 3y ago
  Thanks for the reply. Yeah it seems like hypertension is right up there with fatigue as one of those more general symptoms that can be really hard to nail down a fix for. I'm glad it all worked so well for you.
- bradknowles 3y ago
  I don't like combining drugs, especially something like amlodipine with Olmesartan. Individually, each drug is cheap enough and commonly stocked that I can go into most any Walgreens anywhere and get my prescriptions fulfilled. Do them as a a combo, and suddenly it can only be custom ordered and I have to wait days for it to arrive. And it's also much, much more expensive when combined. One extra pill to take at night does not make a huge change to my nightly routine of taking all my drugs. So taking one less pill wouldn't be a huge improvement, either. But the lack of availability and much higher cost of the combined drug means that I don't ever want to do that again.

by url00 3y ago

hwillis 3y ago

Definitely does not sound straightforward given all the things they tested and excluded. It also very atypical and medicating specifically for this would be unusual. That said it sure sounds like it perfectly treats the root problem. If you have symptoms like Raynauds and POTS (note that POTS can be hard to demonstrate, so may be less convincing to a doctor) then Amlodipine or similar may be helpful. If you take it and you feel lightheaded when standing up, or have trouble with exercise or fatigue, you probably don't need it and it isn't good for you. You may have more consistently high blood pressure rather than transient spikes if you don't have POTS, or if you don't react immediately to cold temperatures. In that case an angiotensin blocker like Telmisartan may help. It can take weeks to become effective, vs Amlodipine should show effects in just a few days. If you have high blood pressure then just telling your doctor you want Amlodipine or something will probably be enough- convincing insurance will be harder. Amlodipine can be used off-label for Raynauds. If you don't have particularly high blood pressure and haven't systematically tried to exclude causes it will be harder to convince your doctor. They might let you try it for a bit to see if it helps, and the generic isn't too expensive.

url00 3y ago
Thanks for the reply! I'll keep researching.

llm_nerd 3y ago

To add to the great reply by hwillis, I just went to my doctor with a concern about my blood pressure and he prescribed amlodipine with follow-up bloodwork to make sure there aren't other factors. When the amlodipine wasn't effective he upped the dose with another set of bloodwork, and then he added telmisartan and lipitor (coupling it in with the amlodipine for convenience) given cholesterol issues with my bloodwork. There are a lot of different blood pressure medications (like a ridiculous array of options) and I let my doctor decide. There are side effects but I have suffered zero of them, and now that the blood pressure is under control my bloodwork across the board has been improving significantly.

url00 3y ago
Thanks for the reply. Yeah it seems like hypertension is right up there with fatigue as one of those more general symptoms that can be really hard to nail down a fix for. I'm glad it all worked so well for you.
bradknowles 3y ago
I don't like combining drugs, especially something like amlodipine with Olmesartan. Individually, each drug is cheap enough and commonly stocked that I can go into most any Walgreens anywhere and get my prescriptions fulfilled. Do them as a a combo, and suddenly it can only be custom ordered and I have to wait days for it to arrive. And it's also much, much more expensive when combined. One extra pill to take at night does not make a huge change to my nightly routine of taking all my drugs. So taking one less pill wouldn't be a huge improvement, either. But the lack of availability and much higher cost of the combined drug means that I don't ever want to do that again.