High Blood Pressure Medication Side Effects Please Comment!

[ThisEndUp]

I think there should be a specialty in medicine for people suffering from medication side effects
and for those who are hypersensitive to medications.  I need to be on medication for high blood pressure.
I have tried HCTZ, toporal XL, Verapamil, Atacand, and am now on Coreg.  
The doctors are getting fed up with me because I can't tolerate the side effects, but I can't help it.  I wish they could feel what I feel so they would know this is no picnic for me.  I would do anything to see straight again!  I have not seen straight in 4 months now!
I am on Coreg now and my blood pressure is good ;  in the 120/70s but I have extreme dizziness, ringing in my ears,
blurry vision, occasionally I have SOB, headache at the base of my skull, and sometimes it feels like my eyes have all the fluid sucked out of them!  When I lower the dose of the med it gets better, but when I try to go off the med things get worse!  I am so tired of trying meds.  I feel like a guiney pig.  But I have tried to control with diet and then my blood pressure goes up I get dizziness and blurry vision and my heart rate goes up.  I know millions of people are on Blood pressure meds, so they must be tolerated.  Does anyone else have this problem?

[KatEyes]

I too have gone thru a few different BP meds because of side effects. May not apply to you, but high blood pressure can be a sign sleep apnea. Since being diagnosed and treating my sleep apnea, my need for meds has decreased and it is under control at lower doses, which means fewer side effects.

[mrskvw]

Boy does that sound familiar.  Diovan HCTZ landed me in the hospital.  I was on that & something else (have been thru so many that I don't remember what the second med was at that time).  My BP spiked so high that my doc gave me a second dose and I bottomed out.  I know one of my BP meds caused horrible edema.  I had elephant legs for the longest time.  Toprol is good for the BP & the heart rate but has a very bad rebound effect if you stop taking it suddenly, so be careful with that.  Right now I'm on Cardizem (sp?) with no problems.

You may also want to ask your doc about an MRI.  Those symptoms - including the headache at the base of your skull - could be coming from other things as well.  If it's a brainstem issue, I believe it could also cause BP problems.