Question: For over a year I have felt so drowsy for most of the day that I just have to go back to bed. I mean drowsy, not exhausted. (I have found that one can be either, separately). Most of the time, I develop some energy in the evenings; but that is getting less now.
My systolic blood pressure is horrendous and has been like that for years; 245 is 'normal' for me! Sometimes, the diastolic is between 90 and 105, but usually that is normal.
I have had dozens of brief TIAs; but I can tell that the trigger for those is a displaced 3rd cervical vertebrae. Because I cannot take any medication (It upsets my stomach badly) will you tell me please, can my neck cause this sleepiness also; and can the hypertension cause it?
I am female, aged 74, and overweight. And so would you be if you were too sleepy to prepare decent meals and doing so made your spine sulk for ages. Instead, I grab the nearest, easiest thing. That is usually sugary; or cheesy. I am intolerant of wheat/gluten and dairy; but been back on them for two years. They make eating easier!
None of the blood tests have shown anything; but I am very close to being diabetic it seems.
At least, PLEASE help me worry about the right thing!!
XXXX

Thank you, doctor. Funny you should say that. Fifteen years ago, and overweight, I heard myself snort quite often in the act of waking in the night. Mentioned it re apnoea to a very nice cardiologist. He was going to look into it. He forgot- and I forgot; probably because my weight came down a lot?

Now I am heavier than ever, and I have been wondering about it again; but the difficulty is that I sleep alone. There is nobody else there to notice. Three nights ago, I heard myself snort again as I woke!

What bothers me is this. Nearly all my life, I have been an insomniac, and often awake all night. Obviously, that left me feeling pretty rotten all day, but I was never, never able to fall asleep during the day. please, who would sleep apnoea make me doze off so much when the insomnia never did?

In 2007, I travelled quite a long way to see one of the many doctors who have resigned and joined the alternative sector, because they disagree with using a blood test to diagnose hypothyroidism. He found that I had that condition. He said that, when her tested the reflex at the back of my heel or thereabouts, it did not move at all. This was no XXXXXXX My sister has myxoedema, and my aunt died of a goitre in the 1920s.

But I am afraid that they made mistakes. I had had that saliva tests of my adrenals. I asked for the 1st, so the results came to me. I knew about the importance of pantothenic acid and vitamin C. I took them for a period, felt better, but not good enough. that was why I went to the doctor. This meant that the repeat of the test's result was sent there. To my XXXXXXX that was not brought to the appointment. I was told that they must be alright, and told to take Armour.
This made me uneasy. When a copy of that report was sent to me, I saw on it that, although it looked normal, it might mean that I was sliding down to too low levels, and that the doctor should keep an eye on it.

After about 5 months, I reported that I felt really ill; had to give up work.
Another adrenal test showed that they were in a very bad way. To cut a long story short, I was then put on adrenal supplement, and later on 7 or 8 a day. I felt bad. Came accidentally across the information that when some people took that, their own adrenals stopped producing altogether. I believed this - and that it was true of me. Years earlier, a XXXXXXX birth control pill had stopped altogether my own production of progesterone with disastrous results.

It must be at least two years since I gave up the adrenal and thyroid tablets. My adrenals do not seem to have recovered at all. I have been taking the pantothenic acid and vitamin 6 again for about a week, but without much hope.

Of the hypertension pills I had to give up, three were beta blockers and they upset my heart, not my stomach.

They kept testing my blood sugar when I was in hospital last month. They generally do carry out all routine tests, although it is the very devil getting them to admit to me what, and what the results were.

Thank you very much, XXXX

Thank you, Dr. XXXXXXX I don't think I explained well enough that nearly ALL medication makes me really ill. It makes the pain in my stomach, and the hiatus hernia region, unbearable in the night. In fact, for as long as
I was seeing the doctor who was against giving me medication, my ancient hiatus hernia did not bother me much.

Then I moved away. In the new place, several doctors insisted on the bp medication. In the end, they had to admit that the doctor who had banned it years before was right - but my stomach has not recovered.

Surely, you are not in The UK? I remember those days, long ago, when patients were admitted in such situations. They stopped that long ago; unless you are obviously at death's door.

Bear in mind that I am older than The NHS. I cannot bear, or cope with, modern behaviour. Now, you are seen as just a body; and, even then, parts of a body: the bits of you that fit current preoccupations they have: like hypertension. My experience has been that, go to a doctor and your health deteriorates, due to their lack of respect.

It was on the news not long ago that extra pressure is being put on A & E now, by people going there instead of to the surgery 'because it is so difficult to get an appointment there.' They are mistaken about that. For at least 40 years, people have been advising me to go to A & E, on the grounds that G.Ps are hopeless anyway.' I never have taken that advice. But I live in an area of the Uk where The NHS always has been backward and useless. Nevertheless, it is all going to blow up in people's faces, and probably before long too. I don't know whose faces or where, but it is nearing its end.

Beyond being given cortisol eye drops 50 years ago for blepharitis, I have never had cortisol or steroids. The doctor I saw privately realised too late that the adrenal supplement advised by them had also harmed my stomach; and said that giving me cortisone instead would be unwise.

I am in the middle of arranging a living will. It is after all natural to die. What bothers me about my hypertension is the possibility of being dumped in a nursing home following a major stroke. I have seen how the elderly are treated there. No thank you!

It occurs to nobody that, for as long as I have to struggle to cope alone with my daily life, simply because they claim to have 'lost' an important diagnosis which, if admitted openly would bring me the help I need, my blood pressure is going also to feel the strain.

The NHS, as I realise now, never was going to work; not for long anyway.

XXXx

Dear Dr. XXXXXXX
Thank you for trying to help. Sadly, what I am saying is that I, as a person, can no longer cope with the effects of medication on my digestive tract. Neither do I understand how medication which keeps me awake night after night with dreadful stomach soreness is going to help my blood pressure!

Sadly, protein pump inhibitors have been tried on me. They too made me ill.

I have not mentioned it to you before, but when I was in my twenties, I was diagnosed as having a condition I have never heard of in any other context, before or since. The word for it was something like agaglianosis? Apparently, I have it in a very unusual place: between my stomach and the ileum. somebody who was not a gastroenterologist (and therefore not in a position to act upon his words) put it to me once that this condition was now causing food to travel backwards into my stomach! I find that a very strange idea, but must admit that it feels like it sometimes; and nearly always in the night. Indigestion, way down in my estimation, as if at the bottom of my stomach or thereabouts, keeps me awake at night. From experience, I know that all I have to do it wait. this ache gradually works its way upwards until I vomit. After that, the whole thing goes away and I sleep soundly until morning.

Yes, I have told doctors. All they do is say dismissively 'That'll be your hiatus hernia.' No, it is not. It is my pain and my stomach, and I ought to know.

But you are right. my digestive apparatus, weak from the start (Even at the age of 5 or 6, fat made me feel ill. When butter reappeared on the table after the war ended, I found it too fatty and still preferred wartime margarine. All my life, until an acupuncturist got rid of it when I was in my 50s, I had a streak of dark brown skin just under all my finger nails), moderate use of aspirin hurt my stomach.

When I was n my 30s, a doctor prescribed Dorbanex Forte. It says on the bottle that one must not exceed two spoonsful a day. I was so desperate that I ended up taking six daily! I mean, I was not going for weeks. Yes, of course I went back and tried to explain. It got me nowhere. But that is when what was diagnosed later as IBS began.

It is too late now.

Thank you, XXXX

Thank you for trying, but you are not listening either! I have already had that
Pantoprazole. It made me ill. I cannot cope any longer with the pain etc done to my stomach. It has nothing whatsoever to do with my beliefs or fears. However, you have answered the question that was bothering me: whether the hypertension was causing this sleepiness. Thank you for that.

I have always had agaglionosis by the way.

Goodbye now, XXXX