Blood Pressure

[Soprano35]

I have been off Norco for five weeks (CT) after being on it for 10 months.  I had knee replacement surgery in December.  I switched to taking Lunesta about ten days ago after taking Ambien for three years.  I don't know if that switch is trading one thing for another - but I guess I became much more aware of ALL drugs after a few days on this site.  I took Xanax for the first two weeks after I got off the Norco and know it helped very much.  I didn't realize that Ambien was a Benzo cousin to Xanax and all of those drugs.  After the ordeal of realizing it wasn't going to be so easy to stop the pain pills now that my new knee is doing dandy, I really wanted to get all the opiate/benzo out of my system.  

For the past week I have been having this "sensation" in my arms and a tightness in my chest.  I kind of figured it's withdrawl from the Ambien, but shouldn't the physical feelings have subsided by now?  I remembered having a similar feeling in my arms a few years ago when I was having low blood pressure upon rising syndrome.  I run low normally but my readings the past two days have been pretty low.  95/49, 85/50, 94/49, 89/53, etc.  High blood pressure is the one that gets alarm bells, but I am wondering if these readings are related to the physical feeling I'm having?  I don't feel anxious, my mind feels so calm and clear.  I really feel great (it really is a pay off to get off the drugs and realize you weren't feeling as good as you thought you were!) except for this bothersome feeling.  I'm swimming laps every other day and walking to get those good chemicals working.

I'm sleeping much better on the Lunesta.  My doctor agreed that it was probably better than the Ambien because it has been approved for long term use, but I realize using drugs isn't ideal and something I am much more aware of now that I have been through this.  At first it had a terrible taste in my mouth but that has abated.  A lot of people on here complain about sleep problems post-withdrawl.  Since I have always had sleep problems I figured I would start tapering it once I had a few good days physically.

Is going off these drugs perhaps related to these low readings?  

[bubbaganoosh]

For myself since i started my taper again my BP has stabled out, when i went back up i was having really bad BP issues. Im positive Opiods muck with BP, not sure why you would think the more i had the calmer i would be, Nope i must be irish lol

[GoingToMakeIt]

I have not heard of that before. I would check with your Dr. I do know it takes our bodies a while to reset and regulate themselves.