General Chat

Well that was an interesting morning. Dropped off my repeat at the pharmacy, went back to collect and the Pharmacist said something like 'aren't you aware that there are problems with this' and ' Doctors are prescribing something else ( well how would I know all that? ;-) ).

Back to the surgery, given new prescription (Losartan) and info leaflet. On reading the leaflet on the way back to the pharmacy I find I have to have a BP test in two weeks - why didn't the surgery point that out and book the appointment?

The first BP pill the doc put me on made my hair thin on top. Good job I have thick hair though.

He changed it to candesartan and these don't give me any problems .

Some hair did re grow but you can see scalp when my hair is wet

The shortage problem seems to be connected with the fact that the patent protection on this product expired towards the end of 2012 and the patent holder and sole supplier, Novartis, has cut back on production for financial reasons.

It would appear that the NHS is recommending Candesartan or Losartan, or where these are unsuited to the patient, Lisinopril or Ramipril.

I take 5mg of both Lisinopril and Amlodipine which does the trick for me.
At the end of the day you have to be guided by your GP. Mine is very much on the ball when it comes to looking for side effects.

Oh great! I dropped of my repeat request yesterday.

Luckily my pharmacy is so bad at keeping stocks up I always have a few days in hand.

I take 50mg of Losartan and had no problems x

I've had candarsatin before, didn't agree with me, and indapamide put me in hosp.

There is quite a bit about the shortage on the web. The drugs losartan and candesartan are suggested as alternatives. Are they what you have tried before McB?

Do as Lyndi suggests, see your GP and don't worry. Tell your GP about the aspirin problem, he will then make doubly sure that what he prescribes is OK for you.

Not to trusting of doc's lyndi, they just dish out pills like smarties, when I left stoke mandeville hosp after my accident they had a note of what drug I was on for my bp, I can't take anti inflamatry drugs but they told me to take soluble aspirin to reduce the inflammation in my hand, when I got home I thought I would check the leaflet in my valsartan, in bold letters DO NOT TAKE ASPIRIN WITH THIS PRODUCT

That's a huge worry for you but your GP will have to sort it out. Try not to worry so much you send your BP soaring ;-) xx

Went in chemist yesterday to get my repeat of Valsartan only to be told it is not available now, seems there is a world shortage of one of the ingredients, doc's have tried different brands on me before but got bad side effects, hospitalised once, don't know what I'm going to do.