Hi i saw here that um the doctor added a new prescription to your list of medications and so i just want to go over that for a smide and some things to keep in mind um going home and uh bringing that into your lifestyle um and so i just saw here that you also are on bisoprolol um and lipitor as well as some nitroglycerin which you use as needed for chest pain
Um so uh for furosemide that is going to be treating your high blood pressure as well as the swelling that you have around your ankles and like lower calf area there something super important about this is it’s really important to keep taking this even if that swelling around your ankles and your legs goes away the thing about having high blood pressure is that
There’s not really signs and symptoms that we can see like we can see the swelling around our legs so even if that does go away make sure that you’re still taking that medication because it can cause other health implications if you don’t take it and so something else to keep in mind with it is that it can cause a sudden drop in blood pressure when going from
Seated or lying down to standing that can be increased with drinking alcohol i saw here that you take two to three drinks per week normally at dinner time and so something to be aware of to stand up nice and slowly same with if you do any exercise in a hot weather maybe if you go on a walk outside or anything that can also cause that drop in blood pressure as
Well as standing for long periods of time and so to help with that that’s making sure that you’re getting up nice and slowly and not rushing and letting all the blood just kind of pull down so taking that nice and slow um a lot of people refer to ferrosmite as the water pill um because it makes people have to pee it makes people have to go to the bathroom and
That normally happens within the first 30 minutes to 60 minutes of taking the medication and it can again happen within the next few hours too as well normally it’s that 30 minutes and then again within a few hours and so it’s important to time it up with your lifestyle and so i a lot of times encourage people not to take it right before bed just because it will
Cause you to maybe have to wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and so if you have somewhere to be maybe around lunchtime maybe trying to take the pill a little bit earlier in the morning to make sure that you have easy access to go to the bathroom another important thing is that furosemide needs to be accompanied with a high potassium diet
Some really good potassium-rich foods are spinach broccoli sweet potatoes mushrooms zucchinis bananas and cantaloupe and those fruits are also good sources of potassium but they’re also high in sugar and so i really encourage patients to stick to more of those leafy greens kind of the spinach broccoli the hearty vegetables that can provide you that potassium but
Isn’t necessarily associated with that high sugar content as well um and then also something really important with your frozen mite is to be tracking your weight if you find that you gain more than three pounds in one day it’s really important that you reach out to a health care provider and so that’s something that i know a lot of patients that they will log
Their daily weights and they’ll weigh themselves every morning when they get up um that’s just a really important healthy easy thing to keep track of i know a lot of patients use excel spreadsheets and you can also enter it directly into your my chart um that’s linked through ohsu as well something else is that this medication can cause photosensitivity which
Means that you are just going to be sensitive to sunlight um so it’s important that if you decide to go outside make sure that you use some sunscreen just because your skin is going to be a bit more sensitive and then also just with that blood pressure i really encourage you to not just fully rely on this medication but also be focusing again on some lifestyle
Adjustments some of those can include reducing some of the sodium that you cook with then find some sodium alternatives um stress reduction is also a really good way of treating high blood pressure and so doing things like meditation um and mindfulness exercises in order to reduce any stress that you have in your life another really important thing is regular
Exercise um i encourage patients to do at least 30 minutes of exercise a day if that means just going on a little walk doing something that is perfect for your lifestyle it doesn’t have to be a run or anything strenuous but even if it means just going on a short little walk around the neighborhood or even if i know that you are the person who goes and gets the
Groceries even if that means you are going to the grocery store that day that is 30 minutes of just walking around while you’re there um and so really accompanying these medications with these lifestyle adjustments just to make sure that they’re working the best that they can um and so yeah just a reminder again that keeping up the medication even when those
Signs and symptoms aren’t present of that high blood pressure um and then i also saw here that um you’d like to cook with a lot of butter and like really hearty yummy things like that too and so there’s some also diet adjustments that we can make too as well um and so instead of maybe cooking with those really high fat foods i’m trying alternatives like cooking
With olive oil or even coconut oil or avocado oil there’s a lot of different adjustments that can happen there and something i encourage is a mediterranean diet is a really good one it’s a really heart healthy diet and there’s a lot of information that you can find about that on the ohsu website and i’m more than happy to print out a handout for that as well but
Please let me know if you have any more questions and reach out to us if you have any questions about scheduling when to take that pill in the day we’re happy to work out a schedule of when is going to be best for you okay thank you so much
Transcribed from video
Furosemide Patient Teaching By Nicole Raymond
