Angina Spray

[wanttohabinate]

My elderly parent has had breathlessness and complained of chest pain under her left breast a couple of times. Recently she has been ok.

Because she won't go for any medical appointments and just has home visits the GP had prescribed an angina spray.

I am a bit worried that if have to administer this it could lead to side effects. I am not sure how serious this could be. I am not comfortable with this at all in case my parent takes too much.

I am also wondering if the spray should have been prescribed without a proper examination. The GP reviews my parent in her home.

Anyone have any experience with the spray or any words of wisdom? Thanks

Have you had a Google of the exact medicine @wanttohabinate?

Do you know what would happen if she'd have those pains and didn't have the spray for instance?

Is it gtn? Hubby has it - it opens things up and can make you dizzy.

Unfortunately all medicine has side effects. It's just a matter of ensuring that the benefits of taking the medicine exceed the possible side effects.

Why are you concerned that your mum will take too much? Surely she won't take more than the dosage prescribed.

I am not a medic, hopefully one will come along, but in the meantime this is what I know - I come across many GTN users.

GTN spray is pretty widely prescribed for angina - in the simplest terms when you have an angina attack your coronary arteries are struggling to get blood through them which makes your heart muscle ache, and it tends to happen on exertion when your heart’s working a bit harder. GTN spray encourages the arteries to relax, letting more blood through, and hence the pain stops and all is well.

There are two side effects I hear about - first is giddiness/faintness, because it’s opening all the arteries so blood pressure can drop. This is temporary, but it’s best to take your GTN sitting down. And the other one is it can give you a headache. I dare say there are others but these are the ones I know about.

The general advice is to use it, see what happens, use it again maybe twice spaced several minutes apart, and if they still don’t work then call 999, but her doctor should have told her exactly what she should do if this happens.

Has your mum given your gp permission to talk to them about her conditions? Might be worth considering.

Good advice there. I take it sitting or lying down and wait for my BP to come up again, which doesn't take too long. Also the headache passes quickly.

The protocol is spray, wait five minutes, if you've still got the pain spray again. If you still have=pain after another five minutes, then 999.