High blood pressure - how long?

[brunoandbear]

I have never had a history of high blood pressure - in fact, it has always been slightly low.

I had my valve repaired on the 6th of April and my aneurysm repaired and ever since then, I have been required to take 75 mg of Toporol XL a day. Now, as long as I am on the Toporol, my blood pressure remains low - the minute it wears off almost, my blood pressure spikes up to 138/75 to 144/75 (I am sure it could get tired).

I woke up with a nasty head feeling this morning because we overslept and forgot to take the Toporol on time and we were late by an hour or so. So my question is - I know it takes time after heart surgery for things to normalize - but how long?

My heart rate used to be 100+ for the last week but since last evening it is returning to normal - say around 80 to sub 80 bpm. When will the blood pressure return to normal?

 

[Ross]

It's really hard to say. Maybe 6 months? Maybe not at all? It might well be a casualty of surgery.

 

[Freddie]

Like Ross said, its hard to say. I believe I was on it for almost 7 months before I was taken off it.

 

[Bina]

I am still on a reduced dosage of BB because I like the way it keeps my heart calm.
Many people are able to get off of them (with cardio's assistance) after a few months or even a few weeks.

 

[TakeStock]

Your blood pressure could be jumping during the day for many reasons, such as after eating. I found my BP to be rather jumpy for the first week or so after surgery, going up and down 20 pts every hour for no apparent reason, before settling down to about 100/70 the second week. My BP was around 115/75 on Toprol before the surgery, so the 100/70 under lopressor is actually a little lower. My HR is about the same as yours. It takes a little time for the beta-blocker to kick in, and of course time for your heart to settle down from the surgery. Plus your digestive system and other parts of your body are still recovering from the surgery, so they'll be erratic for awhile. Slowly everything will settle down and you'll feel normal again.

 

[deek]

I've had the opposite happen...low blood pressure. What's AMAZING is that for two years I've had uncontrolable (almost malignant) high blood pressure...had every test known to man, saw hypertension specialists and was on 10 plus medications and nada. The morning of my surgery my BP was 210/118...after surgery its been between 89/50-110/80...I'm 2 and a half weeks post-op. Surgeon says it will go up...but I don't think anyone really knows. Hope yours goes down or at least is controlled with meds.

Take care,
D

 

[Cameron]

My Internist advised me that anything below 140/80 is OK. The ideal target is 120/80, but the lower the better as long as you can still walk, talk and pee! I came off Metoprolol recently (2 months post op) as my heart rate was too low (42bpm at rest). Since then I am on 10mg Ramipril to keep the pressure down and at rest I am 125/75 and my at rest pulse is back to normal at around 60.
Cameron