The pills I was started on were called ACE inhibitors and the brand name was called Caposide. And it actually also contained a diuretic. Now a diuretic makes you pee and I took the tablets in the morning and it made me pee. And it had the beneficial side effect that if it made me pee a lot during the day I didn’t pee so much at night so I didn’t have to get up so much at night. And it did definitely have a marked effect. I mean you did know once you had taken the tablet that it was a diuretic and you had to rush off to the lavatory several times over the first few hours. Particularly if you hadn’t been taking them for a bit.

The ACE inhibitors on the whole I thought were good. I mean they controlled my blood pressure for a long time. They did have a droop factor so to speak- one still had the same sex drive it’s just that ones performance certainly was affected. And that did begin to get to me after a time. And these again were in pre-viagra days so one has nothing to sort of compensate for it and it began to worry me as to whether this was going to be the end of my sex life- – – even although I still wanted to make love.

I think my main concern is the hospital only do a kidney function test 2 weeks after you start on ACE inhibitors. I asked my doctor how often it’s checked and I think she said once a year. The concern is whether that is enough, because ACE inhibitors can have a slightly more serious side effects in that they can affect the kidneys.

The main side effect – I think the only side effect I’ve noticed – is that it gives me a ticklish throat particularly at night when I’m lying down, but to a certain extent, sometimes during the day as well.

There was one. It was in a green packet with white letters. Begins with a C- – – Covesil! That was a bit too clever for me. I was walking around dizzy all the time. It was too strong, even a very small dose. There was something else I took, Isinopril, I think. I couldn’t see when I was taking that. My vision went very blurry. I mean I normally can read print the size of a grain of sand, but I was struggling to read the headlines in the Times.

The quality of my life is so diminished generally speaking. So far I’ve had beta-blockers which didn’t suit me. I could hardly get my head off the pillow and my mind felt like cotton wool. So I decided I can’t take these. Then I took ACE inhibitors and with those I had about 6 of the side effects and I just felt like I was nearly dead. I had constantly running nose, sore throat, couldn’t breathe properly. My chest, if I took a deep breath, it felt like I was always shallow breathing. Which, having done yoga in my youth, I know is not good for you. So I was thinking, I am taking these pills to lower the blood pressure but loads of other things are coming up that actually are making me feel mega-unhealthy. Every morning I felt like I had drunk a bottle of whisky and I don’t drink alcohol these days at all. I just felt so rough and my stomach felt so rough and tender. And one day I just said to myself ‘no, I’d rather die. I am seriously thinking of not taking the tablets. I have a cold sore at the moment and I am feeling a bit run down. Now I haven’t had a cold sore for ten years’ is it just coincidence or is it that the pills are making me run down? I wake up in the morning and I actually feel quite good and then I take the pill and I seem to lose energy.

The tablet I am taking now has minimal side effects, so far I have only been on it two weeks; but after a month you can usually tell. The other tablets I have taken, after three or four days I’ve felt dreadful, and I don’t feel dreadful. I don’t feel as good as I normally do but it would be an acceptable level if my risk were high enough. I am sensible about these things I feel, I am not so prejudiced, so anti tablets that I wouldn’t take any.

There came a time about three years ago when even taking the tablets my blood pressure wasn’t being controlled. So, what should I do? Because I was happy with these tablets, I had sort of reached an equilibrium where it was acceptable. So I had to reassess with my GP that this lot of tablets- the ACE inhibitors – weren’t doing any good. I actually saw a different GP this time around, in the same group practice, who had slightly different opinions on the whole thing. This was somebody who was very expert on the computer and he brought up loads and loads and loads of alternatives.

I was rather overwhelmed with the choice by this stage. ‘My god do I really have to chose?’ So we did discuss the alternatives and it ended up with him suggesting what is called an alpha blocker and I can’t remember actually the trade name for it but I tried those and they had the most extraordinary effect on me. I mean I walked around in a daze for weeks. I had to go up to London to lecture and I suddenly found myself in Paddington station, I didn’t recognise where I was almost. I mean I could just about if I really concentrated hard at feeling where I was. It wasn’t the sort of thing that you wanted to lecture on very much.

Now I am very aware that there is huge variation between people and how they interact with medicines, so I wasn’t totally surprised. Even with tablets for migraine I realise that some work and some don’t work – that some work with some people and some work with others. And so when these alpha blockers had this effect on me I didn’t really panic. I thought ‘oh god that’s one well put off the menu completely.

I think I’ve become far more tolerant now than I had been. I think it was with the cholesterol medication that I was having difficulty with because the doctor had prescribed different ones. When I took them I became almost ill – upset stomach, aches and pains in my joints and headaches. I remember there was one particular one, I think it was something like Provestate, Protovastate, or something like that, and I rang her up and I said ‘This is awful – I’m really suffering from this,’ and she advised me to stop taking it and I went back to an older medication because she said I had to take something for cholesterol.

Sometimes I’m a bit worried because sometimes I experience dizziness, sometimes I feel a bit lethargic and just feel peculiar. In the first instance I thought, well maybe it was me. Then I began to think I’m taking all these medications, about Alpha Blockers Alternative Treatments 7 different drugs, every day and have been over a number of years, that they do accumulate and they must have some effect so it might be because of those medications. The fact that I am getting older – I appreciate that – but I’m also on this medication which may be doing something too. And lately the new thing is possibly because of this Duxesoseen that sometimes I’m very, very dizzy. Especially going from if I’m kneeling, or sitting down very low, and then I stand up. It’s not the ordinary feeling of dizziness that people have when they get up sometimes because of lowering, low blood pressure. But this is sometimes very, very bad and so bad that I think well I might black out. Sometimes becomes an issue of mind over matter, I know this is bad and I just have to sort of grit my teeth until it passes. It just takes a few seconds but it’s uncomfortable, it’s extremely uncomfortable and it’s annoying if I’m away from home because I simply don’t want to pass out. So that’s a bit worrying and it might be because of the-as I suggested -the new medication I’m taking.

I don’t think I have any side effects. I have a book, a medical book it’s tablets and that gives you little side effects but I’ve never actually had any of them, only with the one I had a long time ago which brought me out in a rash. But I always read the paper, the leaflet inside any drug or whatever I’ve had, I’ve always read the paper and thought about it, whatever it could be for, whether it could be for an antibiotic or whatever you know. I had to have Amoxycillin I remember once and I always read the paper, even for my eye drops I read the paper. But no I don’t have any worry.