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Mileena46

Mileena46

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 13, 2009
Messages
404
Location
Scottsboro, Alabama USA
Hi everybody!

As I posted a few days ago when I went in to see the Cardiologist about a week and half ago he doubled my BP meds.....Lisinapril from 5 to 10mg a day because my bp in his office was 161/91. I took the 10 mg for a week and went to get checked and it was still high @ 138/91. I called the office and the nurse told me to check it once a day every day for the next two weeks and fax her the results. SO, here is what I am getting....the 168/91 Tuesday, 148/88 Wed, and then today , 165/95. At this rate I will be stroked out when the two weeks are up!

My BP was FINE....I had it checked every two weeks when I got my INR done, with no issues and even though it might be a little elevated it wasn't too bad...then I see him, and he DOUBLES my meds and it just keeps going higher and higher!!

I am totally freaking out and don't know if I should be doing something other than what she told me...keep a check for two weeks....I don't think it would do me any good to call back after only a couple days!! Do I need to be concerned? I already know that freaking out will just make it worse....but I can't help it!!

Somebody tell me I am NOT going to stroke out here!! My doctor knows about my high BP and I just DON"T understand why doubling my med would do this!!! Thats what it seems like....maybe I am not making sense because I am so upset!!

Mileena
 
Hi Mileena,

I am not a doctor obviously. Furthermore your medical history is 100% relevant to your general question about your BP and "stroking out", age, weight, BP history, heart history, etc, and I dont have that either (I'm sure you have probably posted it in an earlier post). With that said, if this high BP is a completely recent and new issue I wouldnt be gravely concerned about it. Your readings that you posted are high, but in the short term nothing that is going to make you stroke out. Again i have to repeat, this is if you dont have ANY other contributing factors that have been ongoing that would involve this. If there are other issues, if you have had a problem with your blood pressure for some time now, or anything else that you may know as out of the ordinary you may want to follow up sooner rather than later. I only put this explanation out there this way because a have a family member who had a similair situaition. Was put on a BP med, and it didnt help, seemed to hold or actually get sightly worse. She went back refusing to continue it, her doctor changed to another BP med and that one helped. Different meds can affect different peopl and there respective symptoms differently.
 
Mileena,

First.. take a DEEP breath girl! Stressing out will NOT help. I have HBP too but it is controlled. I had WAAAAAAYYYYY higher than your numbers and I was walking around like that clueless about it the whole time!!. I have hypertension. You just need to find the right med. I am currently on Diovan (the Lisnopril made me cough) and meteoprol for fast beating heart, palpatations etc.

Blood pressure is not going to kill you short term... it takes a LLLLLOOONNGGG time... the thing is.. the docs are aware of it and they will get it down...

Ok???? Breath please :)
 
I've had high blood pressure for 45 years, with avg readings of 150/90 even with meds. No strokes here. Short term, I think you'll be fine, but your physician is the one you really need to speak with about your concerns.
 
You might be freaking yourself out. When I go into the Cardiologist's office, it automatically goes up (white coat syndrome). Fortunately my wife is a RN, so he allows her to monitor it at home and we rely on what she records. Even when she goes to take it at home, I freak out a little so she has to surprise me when she goes to take it.
 
You need to be sure the cuff you and the doctor's office are using is sized appropriately for your arm - especially make sure that it's not too small. If the cuff is too small, it will give you erroneously high readings. The reason this happens is because in a missized cuff, the air bladder doesn't wrap all the way around the arm, and it takes more pressure to occlude the blood vessels - hence giving you a false high reading. My hypertension specialist at UofM said this problem can skew the readings as much as 30 points, and an average of 15-20. So make sure the cuff's bladder wraps around the entire arm. If you are overweight, there is a very good chance the cuff is too small.

There's an emotional aspect to hypertension too. You need to make sure you're not having white coat syndrome by taking your bp at home.

When you take your blood pressure at home, use a monitor validated by AAMI like the omron 700 series. Avoid the wrist or finger models. Make sure the cuff is large enough for your arm so the bladder fully encompasses it. Make sure you're seated for several minutes before you begin. Keep your arm at HEART LEVEL even if you need to prop it up with a pillow. Take the reading 3 times, but do not look at the reading until after the third one. Only record the third reading unless your doctor says otherwise.

Here's an article from the University of Michigan's hypertension clinic on home blood pressure monitoring and other good nuggets of info: http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/guides/homebp.htm
 
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Just ASK said:
I've had high blood pressure for 45 years, with avg readings of 150/90 even with meds. No strokes here. Short term, I think you'll be fine, but your physician is the one you really need to speak with about your concerns.
Click to expand...

I hate to be a downer, but you have probably suffered some end organ damage from long term moderate hypertension. You may not be aware of it, but after 45 years I bet it's there.

Don't let hypertension scare you, but do recognize that it is a problem that should be addressed fairly aggressively and adequately to preserve your end organs in the long term. If you find that it's resistant to treatment with medicines, then it's time to lose weight, eat right, exercise more and look in to other ways to lower your blood pressure. There's even a device out there now that's proven to lower your bp just by coaching a breathing technique.. it's called RESPeRATE.
 
One other thing, I have to admit that I do have "white coat syndrome" In fact, when I was just at the cardiologist again a few days ago.. it was up a bit.. The gal taking it said "hmmmmmm... it's a little high"....

I said, Well...um...yeah... this is the same room, same seat where the doctor told me I will need OHS for my valve only a couple of weeks ago.... HELLO!!
 
The last time my bp was taken, the medical assistant took it with my arm hanging down on my side and she didn't wait but about 30 seconds after i sat down. WRONG. I'd rather them not even take it if they're going to take it improperly. It just gets me nerved up when they give me the reading and it's higher than it should be. I literally ask them to skip it, and if they insist i ask them to not tell me the number - unless of course they do it properly.
 
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Ahhhhhh feel so much better! You guys ALWAYS come through for me!!! The cuff being too small...well even though I would say I am over weight, my arm is not that large....besides it's now been taken with 4 different testers....just turned out that way. Had a friend bring me one to borrow for the next couple weeks and re-did after sitting and trying to relax...the reading was: 138/89. THAT alone helped some....so....AGAIN...thanks to all of you for responding. I guess I need to just calm down, I wonder if I might need some Xanax!?

Mileena
 
Anxiety and heart surgery seem to go hand in hand for some. If that doesn't provoke anxiety, what does?
 
Mileena46 said:
Ahhhhhh feel so much better! You guys ALWAYS come through for me!!! The cuff being too small...well even though I would say I am over weight, my arm is not that large....besides it's now been taken with 4 different testers....just turned out that way. Had a friend bring me one to borrow for the next couple weeks and re-did after sitting and trying to relax...the reading was: 138/89. THAT alone helped some....so....AGAIN...thanks to all of you for responding. I guess I need to just calm down, I wonder if I might need some Xanax!?

Mileena
Click to expand...

That's a pretty big variation... that would dovetail pretty well with the cuff mismatch thing :-D I'm not saying your arm is the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger's, I'm just saying you might need a bigger cuff. I would ask your friend what size cuff it is that he/she brought you, and stick to that cuff size. Either that or try to look at the tag on it, or physically measure it.
 
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