Contents under pressure -

[kyburg]

BP? 150/100 in the office today. Yup, today was my annual physical - compounded by the fact I need to get a health certification done for Heartsent.

I'll be going back Tuesday for a TB and urinalysis - and Thursday to get four copies notarized. Ya-hoo.

(Doctor took the BP again after I'd been in the office a while. It went up from there. I may love the man - I've known him 22 years, and I can literally trust him with my life - but I don't like being in his office as a patient. It shows on the lab work.)

However, the weight is stable, albeit too high. I've gotten all the benefit I'm going to get out of the lifestyle change of moving closer to work. I've lost 15-20 lbs. I need 30 more to come off, and I don't think it's going to go without something of an argument. *sigh* I really, really don't like the gym - I get bored easily, and I've yet to meet anyone I'd want to hire as a one-on-one personal trainer. The intake people see my BP and refuse to do anything with me.

I go out with the guys at lunch for "walks" - and if you've ever seen the neighborhood I work in, you know there is no level ground. The guys search out the good hills to get a workout in, using as few blocks of time as they can spare. I know I need more exercise - I can tell by going out with them. That's only a start.

(Today? Today, before I left work, I had five projects appear out of nowhere that will have to be taken up after the holiday, got roped into testing something that Did Not Work and I had to GO NOW to get to the appointment I'd made months ago. Stress, me? Add driving the 405 N on a holiday weekend. Stir and serve with a wedge of lime. Yeah. *snerk*)

You know, I got the documentation beginning of the year. WTF. Enough already. Priority time - six months, and if we don't see improvement in the BP, we're changing meds and I'm not fond of the idea. That also includes taking the stupid BP more often - which, as you might have guessed, I don't fancy. Grr. Genetics suck. (Mom, and her mother both were hypertensive, let alone the train wreck that's my aunt. The cousins also have mentioned a number of issues - one claims NDE due to coronary. Nice, huh?)

So that was my day. Now? Now I have a cup of tea and enjoy the holiday.

Comments

my bp does that too

[tomlemos.livejournal.com]

When they take it when they get me back with the nurse, it always registers high. When the doctor takes it later it is always fine. So, he just disregards what the nurse takes. The nurse makes me nervous is what we figure out. Don't know why. Even with the doctor in the room. Strange body I've got. Go figure.

Re: my bp does that too

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*nods* This is my late husband's primary physician - an endrocrinologist, by trade - but I adore him.

Wish my body trusted me as much as my head does.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I wish you good health, and good luck in getting that BP reduced to a better number. I'm struggling with that, too, and my doc (who is awesome) keeps changing prescriptions or dosages on me for that.

I wish I could send this body of mine back for a new one!

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

Eventually, they send hypertensive people to see nephrologists - one kind of turns the other on the wheel of things. Don't hesitate to consult one.

[luscious-purple.livejournal.com]

Wish I could help you with the BP issue, but I don't have any experience with it myself. Well, except that my Dad used to skip taking his BP pills, and one day he dropped dead. But in his case, the top number would go up to >200.

Can they really bar you from adopting based on a BP reading?

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

They really don't like seeing "anything" - I'm really motivated to look as "perfect" as possible.

[joggingguy.livejournal.com]

Do you have white coat syndrome like I do? :-)

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

He thinks so - I'm working that theory up right now.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

If you haven't already, get yourself a BP monitor and use it at home. I take mine very early in the morning, after I've settled the jangle of getting up but before I do anything else ('cept check email). Keep records and present those to the doc at your checkups. That's how you tell what you're *really* doing with your BP. It'll be up ten points at the doc, ga-ron-tee. They call it "white coat hypertension."

OTOH, if it's really 150/100 at home in two weeks, go back to the doc and kick his ass until he changes your meds.

As for the BP meter, my GP recommends the ones that fit over your arm, not the one that goes over your wrist. He likes Omron for a brand. I've got the mid-level one that's pump-powered rather than hand-powered, and has a 14-entry memory.

Going out with the guys at lunch is a *great* way to put the triple whammy on this. If you walk before you eat, it (a) increases your glucose tolerance, (b) uses calories you've already stored, rather than ones you've just eaten, and (c) going with the guys means you presumably don't get bored. And it's already worked into your schedule.

But, yes, before all that, Tea, Dammit. *hugs*

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

He was suggesting Vasotec - and I put the brakes on that one. I've been on Dyazide for a few years now as a precaution. There's a family history, but so far, I'm the only one showing it in my generation, which has me a little baffled. (Usually, something where there's a history? We all go together when we go...allergies, you name it.)

I'm adding Alavert today to my daily regimin as it is; I really want to keep the number of meds down to a minimum. Just for my sanity.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Vasotech is an ACE inhibitor; I was on lisinopril, which is similar, for most of a year. I did get the dry cough side effect, but that's about the only problem there is with these... I ended up getting switched to Micardis, which (dammit) has no generic...

But seriously, these aren't big nasty kinds of drugs; the lisinopril is exceedingly common as a generic and damn cheap, and aside from the cough (which not everybody gets), just does its job and stays out of the way. And you can get it in a form which has the HCTZ already in it.... so you only have to take *one* pill instead of two.

Yes, it's a PITA to keep up with. I'd rather have it be a pain in the ascii than a pain in the chest....

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

/me realizes in typing that that he hadn't taken his own meds, and does so.

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

*scoots* I already have a cough, etiology not quite known, hence the Alavert.

This is one of the meds Cliff was on, back in the day - unless this is really necessary, it's not a step to take lightly.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*multiple light bulbs go on*

Hon, as far as I can tell, the reason my daddy ended up in the mess he did was because his meds weren't strong enough. *Just* an ACE inhibitor isn't all that strong; neither is a diuretic (which is what you're on).

The way docs treat BP, at least the way mine does, is a matter of trial and error. Each person is different, so they have to slowly figure out over time what cocktail of stuff will work for each individual. And sometimes they guess wrong. We thought we had me figured out for a while, until it finally got through my thick skull that all this coughing wasn't something that was happening before, so we switched me off the lisinopril to the Micardis, but it turned out not to be enough.... so my endo got involved and recommended the diuretic in combination (which is fairly common)... and *that's* working. It took ten months to come up with that combination, and I've got four or five different prescriptions languishing in my pharmacy's limbo that I'll never fill because they aren't the right combo for me.

Listen to your doc.... but do your own research too. (Most of them love it when you do that.) Goodness knows there's enough lit out on the net these days that you can do so. There are about five or six different classes of meds. The reason they tend towards ACE inhibitors these days is that about the only side effect they tend to have is the cough I got, which is merely annoying, not threatening, and they're dirt cheap.

I hear what you're saying. You're thinking going on this stuff is the next to last step before the undertaker. Hon, it's trying to keep you away from him. In poor Cliff's case, it wasn't enough... but the worst thing you can do right now is not do something. Yes, it's a pain in the ASCII to keep up with all the gorram pills. But if it means the difference in seeing kids I haven't had yet grow up?

And I *know* what I'm saying is tough. But, darnit, I've been drinking enough toasts to absent friends lately. I want to live to see you blog about your grandkids. We've both got to stay on the stick about this stuff to do that...

Which reminds me. Time to do that thing again...

[foogod.livejournal.com]

I wanted to suggest a home monitor as well. I personally use an Omron HEM-637, which is a wrist monitor. I was a little dubious about the wrist kind myself, but my dad recently went through a bunch of different BP monitors (including a bunch of arm monitors) and found this to be one of the only ones that had a reasonably accurate reading on him, which is why he recommended it to me. It's also tested accurate on everybody else I know who's used it (him, myself, and a family friend). Personally, I actually think it gives a more accurate reading on me than arm monitors because when I feel something constricting my arm, it triggers a bit of a panic reaction and I can feel my heart rate go up, but with the wrist I stay much calmer, and it's also a bit easier to work with (and the HEM-637 also has a few other features like recording and graphing your measurements over the past several weeks, which is nice).

One thing, when you do get a blood pressure monitor for yourself (which I definitely recommend), take it in with you to your doctor's office and test it side-by-side with an "official" reading. That will give you a decent idea of whether it's accurate or not for you.

If you really want to know what's going on with your BP, you really need to test it on a regular basis, at least twice a day, for a while to get an idea of how it fluctuates.

After using mine for a while, I'm not nearly as concerned about my blood pressure as I was originally, because on a daily basis my pressure is significantly less than it always tests in a doctor's office. Of course that kind of knowledge, while reassuring, still wouldn't help you with passing tests and such..