That’s a difficult question to answer, because I’m on a lot of medication, I’m not sure which has got the worse side effect – they’ve all got awful side effects. I think the reason why my hands go dead so often is because of one particular medication, I’m not going to say which one it is because I might be wrong and I might get into a lot of trouble. I’m not sure, it’s hard to separate it from my actual symptoms and condition, I don’t think I can answer that very easily. I think the whole thing… the reason I get the nausea even is a mixture of both, without taking that medicine I would be in a lot of trouble, I wouldn’t be able to eat my meals half the time and get the medication down me.

But one of the things I have noticed is with my medication, I thought it was something getting stuck in my throat and dissolving in my throat, which is why when I was having the heart attacks I never took any notice of the discomfort because I thought it was one of my tablets had dissolved in my throat. And that goes on, happens quite regularly. It still happens. Unfortunately now I know it is cardiac related, possibly angina, so I know to use the spray now, whereas I used to always blame my tablets getting stuck in my throat or a reaction between the meds that I was taking at the same time.

So can you describe that feeling then, it’s not exactly a pain?

It’s not a pain it’s more a, a discomfort. And the only way I could describe it to the hospital was as if I had swallowed bleach, as if I had swallowed a couple of capfuls of bleach and my insides were burning. And that was the pain I felt when I was having the heart attack as well. But like I said because I’d had it prior, and it always seemed to be after I was taking my medications, I thought it was one of the tablets sticking in my throat and dissolving, but unfortunately it turned out it was cardiac. And when I started getting that pain again more recently, I knew, you know, I need to speak to my doctor about this straight away. And my doctor dealt with it, you know, reassured me that it was angina pain and just to use my spray. And if it become more problematic I had to go back in and see him. Or if it didn’t, if the spray didn’t take the pain away I was to phone 999 and get an ambulance straight away.

Religiously in the morning I take them. In the evening that can be up and down, but if I miss an evening then I make sure that I’ll take an easy evening and take them that evening, you know what I mean?

But the water tablets, the morning ones and the heart tablets which now have been regulated now. I used to take them in the mornings but now I’m taking them in the evenings, which I think is a better thing because when you took them in the morning, well I used to have like dizzy spells if I was to bend down too quickly, I’d feel faintish. And then my GP at the hospital turned round and said, ‘Well they’re changing the programme and putting them on nights because obviously, you’re relaxed, your sleeping. So if your pressure goes down or whatever, you’re in sleep, it’s not going to kill you so you’re there in sleep so not going to feel it, which is better.

Are those the beta-blockers?

The beta-blockers, yes.

Well, it’s hard to pin-point because I take 4, 5 in the mornings so I’ve got 5 tablets working around so I don’t know if it’s this or that. The only one I have, well obviously the beta-blocker, when I went up from the 1mg to 2.5 and then 3.75, then it went on to 5, oh that was, you know that was when I could feel the heart, you know what I mean?

Because obviously, well the way I look at it, it’s slowing it down so if I’m continuing doing what I normally do it’s putting extra pressure on my heart so obviously you’re going to feel it more, ain’t it? Because you’ve one slowing it down and theres you trying to work it and it’s going, hang on, what’s going on here, you know. This has said slow down and you’re saying you want more, you know what I mean? So, I explained that to the nurses down there and they says, ‘Oh, if you feel uncomfortable just drop that down to the one that you feel comfortable with. Like again, none of the other tablets, nobody said nothing to me about the other tablets, you know what I mean? And it doesn’t seem like they’re interested about the other tablets, it’s just the beta-blocker and that’s it.

I think the bisoprolol, as a beta-blocker, slows you down, depresses your activity and makes you feel knocked off, and that has affected me, probably, and I think still does but you kind of work through it, and I know, I know many people who’ve stopped taking their beta-blocker or other medication because they felt better not taking it. But you run the risk of losing the beneficial effects of the medication, which is supposed to protect you or treat you. I’ve had a bit of side-effect with ramipril. It has occasionally, it has the effect of inducing a bit of dizziness, and because my blood pressure is lower than it might be, you, the combination of the two, the beta-blocker and the ramipril, causes what they call positional hypotension, where your blood pressure has dropped and, when you get up you feel a bit light-headed if you, if you come up too quickly, that sort of thing. And of course warfarin has the inevitable side-effects of that you bleed or bruise, or both, more easily than you might otherwise do. But, apart from that, not too bad. Oh yes, aspirin. Aspirin has an has an effect on your gut, so I did have gastritis at one point, so I take a PPI medication. It’s currently lansoprazole as a, as to combat the gastric side-effects of aspirin and all the others combined, yeah.

Yes the diuretics, I think the Ace inhibitor does that as well doesn’t it, but I’m not terribly sure, but I think it does make it dehydrate, so you have to have enough fluid, but I have diuretics and to get rid of excess fluid, so you have to take in fluid as well (laugh). So to keep the kidneys on the right track otherwise they get too dehydrated and then you can be in trouble.

Can you tell me a bit about the diuretics and how you take those?

Well I used to have two every day, two tablets, and I found that I was in a lot of constant you know trots and things and then they cut it down to one because I was getting peculiar side effects and dizziness, and I’d had more kidney blood tests done, and there was an area where the graft didn’t show the right figures it should have had and the doctor said to me that I should really be drinking more water. But the fact that I wasn’t drinking enough water he said he would try cutting down the diuretic to just one tablet and I’ve been on one tablet ever since and that seems to be helping.

Well, that [kidney problem] was only diagnosed two weeks ago through a recent blood test. And I, I have a blood test every year, but on this particular occasion he wanted me to have another one, because he’s been monitoring whatever it is in my blood. And he saw me two weeks ago after the blood test, he said, Well, I’ve got to tell you that you’ve actually got. And he explained to me about the fact that doctors never really took a lot of notice of that particular disease or condition, and you can’t do anything about it, it’s just something you’ve got to live with, but it’s got to be monitored. And he explained to me about all that and said, you know, We are going to have to have regular blood and urine tests. And, and I’ve had a urine test and I haven’t had the result yet, but I can go down the surgery and find out. And I know that if there was a problem he’d ask them to send for me to see him.

No I’ve always taken the medication the doctor has prescribed. I’ve tried it,I mean I had, initially he did us give us a tablet called ramipril and that one gave me an awful cough so he changed that you know, because I read up on these particular ones which some do you give a cough, a side effect of a cough which was pretty awful coughing all night long in bed and that all, my wife will tell you that, cough, cough, cough. So he changed that, and then he, there is certain ones that will give you that type of side effect so they have to adjust them like. No, mostly all the tablets or medication hes given me, the doctor, I try it yes certainly but if it doesn’t work right I tell him [laughs].

And hes [GP] monitored very carefully how they’ve affected me. One example was ace inhibitors which I can’t exactly remember what they do but, one of the unfortunate side effects was coughing. Coughing like mad and he changed that prescription to an alternative, can’t remember what that’s called, or can I? Candisatin, yes candisatin which is an alternative to an ace inhibitor and that has certainly not caused any side effects. So he regularly checks on the medication and the side effects.

No problem with beta blockers but it’s the ACE inhibitors. They cause me to cough at night. So that was changed to an ARB, and I can’t remember what the initials stand for.

Angiotensin Resister Blocker, or something like that.

Blocker, yes, yes, yes. That’s right. And then I was put on to spironolactone or eplerenone and both of them gave me absolute disaster with my gut. I couldn’t go out anywhere without rushing to the loo and so I can’t take either of those drugs which are very useful for extending life apparently. So I don’t take those and I can’t take. When I was changed from the ACE inhibitor my consultant wanted me to take a particular dose of candesartan. So I started taking it and with the nurses I was increasing it and it just made me unbelievably breathless. I couldn’t walk half way down the garden. It was dreadful. So I, I said, I’m not, I’m not going to stick with it. I can’t. It’s just awful. So they put me on to losartan and I had the same effect, so I am on a tiny, tiny little dose of losartan, although I don’t think my consultant is very pleased with it , the nurses say, Well, you know, everybody is different and that’s all you probably need. I’ve never had high blood pressure so, you know, it probably is all I need. So, but it keeps me well.

I can’t, I can’t make myself eat because I feel sick. I haven’t had anything to eat at all today and I’ll have a sandwich for my tea. Evening, a slice of toast maybe. But I can’t, I’m not saying I can’t, that’s wrong. I might have a bacon sandwich occasionally but I can’t eat meals, cooked meals, dinners, things like that. I have no appetite. I make, like my own pies and things like that, you know I don’t buy pies, casseroles and stews, I make everything myself, but I just have no appetite. The smell of food, in fact, sometimes I could just run a mile. It’s not, I don’t think, I don’t know what it is. I was talking to somebody at the hospital the other day, she said, well it was at the Warfarin clinic, and she said it was nothing to do with the Warfarin. I said ‘I know because I was on that before. So I don’t know what it is;;

I’ll give you another example if you like. From time to time I used to enjoy tinned salmon. I just liked it, it was lovely. And one day [wife] said ‘how about some nice salmon from a tin, I got a tin specially in for you if you would like to try it?’ I said, ‘Yes, sure; because when you’re looking after somebody who’s not very well it’s difficult to find things that they like and the first mouthful of this salmon was quite normal, very nice and I think well I’m going to enjoy this and the next mouthful was like metal polish. It was really disgusting and I couldn’t eat it. A few months later we went to [a friends] and you can’t be too choosy can you; And what did she give us but tinned salmon and on that occasion I thought it was lovely;

Oh, no doubt about it. It’s absolutely down to the medication. I mean, if you think about what I said earlier about the quantity of drugs chucking it down in your tummy, it’s not all at once, it’s some in the early morning and then after breakfast and every meal I have to have Metformin which is to counteract sugar.