Thanks guys, lucy, i'm not just throwing away my meds all at once and i'm not doing it on a cut off my nose to spite my face attidude.I'm trying to save mine and my daughters life for as long as i can. We have between us had 5 horrible misdiagnosis by doctors that have left both of us disabled in differant ways and are on disability because of it. The reason i have CHF is because of diabetic meds i took for years.I had a stroke because of another medication prescribed. Had almost a 3month bad reaction to another drug even tho it was on my records not to give it to me.The doctor forgot to read that page for the reactions i had before.I did'nt have to pay for that hospitalization.Because they thought i'd sue. I was hospitalized for severe pain in the left back upper abdomen and was dehydrated,high temp,high wbc. Ihad sat at home in pain for 5 days because of my warrented distrust of doctors. Went to emergency room ,was admitted. However the ER record that showed a large kidney stone blocking the tube at the kidney was left in ER.Floor dr. could'nt come up with diagnosis, however bp had shot up So dr gives me lisenopril in hosp.Turns out as with a few other drugs i had a one in 10,000 reaction to drug. temp up, slight rash and my throat started slowly swelling.Nurses said i was having a panic attack and had lain on my pillow wrong and had a crick in neck.I lay like that over nite till i could'nt talk and was having trouble breathing. When things were finally under controll again My DD asked the dr. What about the kidney stone? Dr. said "what kidney stone? After an MRI, i was transferred to another hosp and emergency surgery done.The kidney dr. said he did'nt know how i stood the pain that long.Sometimes the pain is better than the cure.DD,s lawer wanted me to sue, said i had an ironclad case. I do not sue people because that could not make me whole and that is all i want. That is not all thats happened to me and my dd in the health care system nor anywhere near all my health problems. bu it's all i'll talk about for now anyway.Does that give you an indication of my feelings for health care. Yes i have a resonable dr now and no i would'nt tell you if he told me to forget medical care and go for the herbs.I'm not stupid either and i like this man. eric, my feelings do not reflect on you in any way. I don't understand this prolong life attitude. For what? The quality? I'm not afraid to die and i wont go looking for death either. Obviously i'm not afraid of pain either.If i take care of myself i'll probably have less of it. No i don't think dr.s care either except when it applys to them or their familys along with apollig and most of the populace. Eric again i'm not saying you are like this but this is how the med field is perceived by many. i also wish the med profession and herbalism could peacefully join together and in some countrys this is and has always been so. Just not here. but more importantly the patients and doctors and nurses need to peacefully join together. The populace needs to be educated in basic understanding of medicine and health and the med field needs to be educated on talking on a level playing field to patients. Patients are much more intelligent than most med field people think. They are in general just lazy. LOL! Eric, as far as i know you do talk to and understand your patients .but most dr,s don't. When standard billing practice is to charge the patients for all care and meds caused by doctors mistakes, What can you expect? The way i put researching, on google i was misunderstood. That is what i do. I enjoy it. but not to have to proove everything i say on line. Tomorrow i'll address the other thread. just glancing through i saw a link to an herb that might help me. Thanks much. I'll thankfully look into it. See you tomorrow. vickie

Thanks for the replies. I think you're right about just trying to keep things simple. Congratulations to your mom, Jen. I know losing more weight would help me, too, but it's not an easy process. I managed to lose 10 pounds last year watching fat and calories, still eating a fair amount of fast food. I went to CalorieKing.com, found the seemingly healthiest foods at our usual haunts, and made up a list of "safe" foods I liked. But I hadn't even looked at sodium content. Now I'm looking over those old reliables, and finding tons of sodium wherever I look. It's as if they know they are losing flavor using lower fat, and are trying to make up for it with more salt. At McDonald's, even their McVeggie burger on a whole wheat roll has 1200 mg of sodium! The low fat salad dressing I had yesterday turned out to have over 700 mgs, and the grilled chicken salad by itself had 800. I don't plan on giving this stuff up altogether, but I can sure see how careful you'd need to be to make up for just one fast-food meal.

With me, it is not the salt but the amount. I have to have salt due to heat. Try sea salt, or light salt, but do not use no-salt without talking to either your Dr or a dietian. The American Heart Association has a cook book you might get at the library. I use several types of spices that are salt free. Just look at the seasoning section, or check the health food store. It would depend how high your blood pressure is and if a restrictive diet would help. your Dr should be able to give you some guide lines and you can also use just plain oh common sense. Marie

Lindsey is correct about men and women. But there is also the thing that because of some type of bias doctors tend to discount when women present with health problems that if a man presented with the same symptoms they would immediately be sent if not to the hospital for at least testing. I take the 5 mg of Lisinopril however I have problems with BP dropping after eating. I become extremely light headed and feel like my body is oozing into my chair. I am expecting to have a change in medication when I have my yearly later this year. kadefol ask that your husband be checked for adrenal problems as craving salt is one of the symptoms. I am lucky in that my high BP is not salt reactive because when I do crave salt my doctor at that time told me it was a symptom of an adrenal problem. Once I have salty food for a couple of days the problem goes away for a couple of months.