High Blood Pressure meds

[st0necol]

Hello,

My mom is a diabetic patient and also has blood pressure. She was diagnosed with FSGS.......and there was a very senior doctor looking after her case but he has went abroad permanently so we went to the new doctor yesterday and for blood pressure he changed her old medicine (Tenormin - 25mg once a day) to Calan 40mg (verapamil) to control her proteinuria. I have searched hard enough on the Internet to figure out whether calcium channel blockers (verapamil) actually are better and safer on kidneys and reduce proteinuria than Tenormin but didn't find any conclusive evidence......I chose to email my mom's old doctor and he asked why isn't she on Ace Inhibitors for proteinuria and then after seeing her creatinine levels and all he prescribed spironolactone 25 mg once a day which I think raises potassium in the blood but is effective for proteinuria.

What do you guys think ? Are Calcium Channel blockers really effective? I am concerned about using spironolactone because my mom's potassium levels once went very high and her creatinine shot up above 4.0 mg/dl.

Thanks

[crinkster]

I'm not familiar with the types of blood pressure medications you mentioned. I can only share my experiences. I was on Lisinopril for quite some time. It was very effective. Then I started to get the side effect of a dry throat and cough. It became unbearable. It was actually my PharmD who tipped me off to the potential problem. Three trips to the clinic at my PCP's practice (and to her) and no connection was made. I contacted my nephrologist who suggested I take no BP medication for about a week to see if the side effects abated. They did a bit (then my PharmD told me it could take up to 5-6 weeks). My BP sky-rocketed. He then prescribed 25 mg of Losartan. It wasn't all that effective. He doubled the dose. My BP is running about 132/88 right now. I'm to call him tomorrow to report progress or lack thereof. I suspect he may try something else. At least it's not 172/102 anymore.