Maarten Vasbinder lives in Isaan. His profession is general practitioner, a profession that he mainly practiced in Spain. On Thailandblog he answers questions from readers who live in Thailand.
Do you have a question for Maarten and do you live in Thailand? Send this to the editor: www.thailandblog.nl/contact/ It is important that you provide the correct information such as:
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Dear Martin,
I am a man of 72 years, height 178 cm, weight 86 kg. Blood pressure around 135/75, pulse: 55. I have been taking 55 mg Amlodipine in the morning and 10 mg Alfuzosin in the evening on the prescription of my GP since I was 10 years old.
Now I recently moved to Thailand and (because of all the good messages on Thailand blog in your answers to readers' questions) I have also had 14 mg Finasteride in the evening for 5 days. It can be noted in the reports that the effect of this last drug can take 6 months to appear, but from day 3 I sleep through the night, while for years I usually wake up after 3 to 4 hours to go to the toilet. Going back to sleep is usually a torture, so I am very happy with the quick effect of the Finasteride. But now I notice that around the start of taking this medicine I got swollen ankles. That lasted about 3 days, and is now much less, but still: still retaining some moisture.
Is this normal, is it part of the side effect, will it eventually go away, is there anything I can do myself?
Thanks for taking the trouble to answer.
T.
*****
Dear T,
I have not been able to find swollen feet with Finasteride in the side effects, but that does not mean anything.
Since you take two vasodilators, the Ca blocker Amlodipine and the alpha blocker Alfusozin, I'd rather look there. You could try to halve the Amlodipine to 5 mg and take it in the evening. Keep an eye on your blood pressure, which can be a bit higher. 140/85 for example.
If that doesn't work, we'll look further. Give it a few weeks.
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Maarten
Do you have a question for Maarten and do you live in Thailand? Send this to the editor: www.thailandblog.nl/contact/ It is important that you provide the correct information (see list at the top of the page).