OK, by now you all know, I've been fighting high blood pressure. As my training for RAAM has been heating up, I've been feeling light-headed after rides and that's my cue to start decreasing my blood pressure meds. I only have 30mg pills of the Procardia, so I skipped a day and then attempted to discontinue the medication. Not a good idea. I always have the worst withdrawal symptoms from blood pressure medication. Once, before my transplant, I had a batch of blood pressure patches go bad. I spent several hours (at 2am mind you) looking for the one CVS open 24 hours in Northern Virginia to get a new patch. The pain is so intense, I can't stand it. At 1am, I couldn't stand it any longer and I cracked a 30mg pill in half and downed it. Yes, I know you're not supposed to just cut those time release pills in half, but I was desperate. I cracked the remaining half in two and I'll take one of those tonight and hopefully that will be the last Procardia I take until next fall. I think the Procardia was doing something funky to my system, affecting my heart rate when riding. I just went to check on the side effects of Procardia and look at that Anemia is listed as a rare side effect...That explains my hematocrit at 32%. Like I said in an earlier post, I get the rare side effects from medication. They also list "fluttering heartbeat" and "rapid heartbeat" as side effects, which would explain the "funky feeling" I have when riding.
"The Horror"
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