High Blood Pressure?
Moms View Message Board: General Discussion: Archive January 2007:
High Blood Pressure?
I went to the Dr. on Tuesday. I was having a weird headache in the back of my head, that was driving me nuts.
I was taking my pressure @ home with my Dad's kit and it was running high. So when I got to the Dr. office it was 156/100. He said that was high for me.
So now I am on meds to see if they will bring it down.
Does anyone else have pressure problems if so what kinds of meds seemed to work for you and were there any side effects to the meds you are taking? I HATE having to take meds everyday. Just not a pill person. But I guess with this I don't have a choice.
TIA
Kate, no matter how much you hate taking meds, if it is for high blood pressure, TAKE THEM. 156/100 is high, and it is not surprising you were having a headache.
To encourage you to take your blood pressure medications - my father had high blood pressure and did not take his meds, cut out salt, or do other things to lower his blood pressure. He had multiple little strokes - multi-infarcts - and eventually had multi-infarct dementia. The man who was my father was gone, leaving only a body, for at least 4 years before he died. One time, when the hospital did a scan of his head with dyes to show the areas of his brain killed by the little strokes, the dead areas showed up white, and the technician commented "his brain looks like a snow-storm". As much as I loved my dad, I was often very angry with him for his not taking care of himself and taking himself, as a person, away from my mom and me and leaving us with the shell.
That said, I have read a lot of articles saying that the older, tried-and-true blood pressure medications work as well as, or often better, than the newer meds. And they've been around a lot longer, so the risks/side-effects/etc are well known. And, being mostly generics, they cost a lot less.
My DH takes blood pressure meds and I am not sure what he takes but he did say the first few weeks that he took it he had very weird vivid dreams.
I have autonomic dysfunction. The autonomic system keeps your entire body in check, your heart rate, your blood pressure, your body temp, body fluids, etc. My blood pressure is okay most of the time, but my body can't control it's heart rate. Mine speeds up anytime I am upright. So I have to take beta blockers. I take Atenolol and have for a long time. Often you will feel kind of run down until you get used to them.
Also, keep tabs on your heart rate and your blood pressure while on them to make sure it doesn't drop it/them too much.
My dh takes them. He doesn't have any side effects. I don't know the name of them. He has them in his briefcase. I can find out tonight. He is trying to eat healthier, and loose 35 lbs. Then, his doctor will try and take him off.
He was upset about going on them too. He asked his doctor what the side effects were. She told him "We can talk about the side effects, but I would rather talk about what would happen if you don't take them...you could die, or have a major stroke and never be the same."
I take metropolol and hydrochorothiazide. My BP stays at a good level now. Although, if I have someone take it at work, it's good. When I go to my doctor, it's high! Drives me nuts.
DH takes metropolol (which is actually just generic Lopressor). I take HTCZ.
BTW Kathy, when I was pregnant, I had pre-eclampsia and my B.P. was very high. Recently, when my blood pressure changed from running low to normal, to above normal, the first symptom I had was the headache, which, if you've experienced a headache from high blood pressure, you will recognize immediately, which I did.
My normal B.P. used to be 90-100 over 65 to 70. It was that way for most of my adult life, with the exception of the pregnancies. Then it started going up, and it was 162/100 at one point. I knew it was high simply due to the headache and the feeling like my head was going to explode.
TAKE THE MEDS! You will prevent stroke or heart problems AND feel much better! Good luck.
I have never had a headache. My BP was just trending higher and higher, when I went in for doctor visits!
Wow Dawn. No symptoms whatsoever? My head felt like it was going to explode, there was pressure and the headache was across the top and back of my head. Also could feel my pulse pounding.
I had no symptoms. That's why they call hypertension the silent killer! I'm sure that's why we check people's blood pressures, everytime they come to the clinic!
Dawn, it sounds like you suffer a little from "white coat hypertension". LOL! It's common for some people's BP to be higher in the doctor's office. Fear, anxiety, etc..
My DH has had a triple coronary bypass and has a pacemaker. He takes Atenolol for blood pressure along with Lipitor and Zetia for the cholesterol). The only side effect that he has noticed is a dry, hacky cough. The pharmacist said that beta-blockers sometimes DO cause the cough in some people.
Even after all he has been through, he is a salt person. Can't break him of it. I finally got him to comply with a lowfat diet. He is also SUPPOSED to watch the sweets because it raises triglygerides, AND both his parents were diabetic at the end of their lives.
I haven't yet had high blood pressure, even when pregnant, and I am not a slim person. The only time that it is elevated is when I have my knees injected with cortisone (bad osteo-arthritis), which is about once every five months. For about a month, it is slightly elevated.
I have high blood pressure, and I take 100 mg of Cozaar every day.
It started when I was pregnant (almost 11 years ago!) and like Karen I was in the beginning stages of pre-eclampsia right toward the end of my pregnancy. I was very stressed out at work and with the co workers I was dealing with. My dr told me to stay at home and off my feet because of my blood pressure, and 2 days later my water broke!
So, from then on, my blood pressure ran high, but not so high he put me on meds. But then about 5 years ago, I got into another stressful job situation and always came home with nasty stress headaches. I took a LOT of Tylenol and I still wonder if that's what did it. I went to the doctor one day in February of 2004 for a bad cold and my bp was 145/115! I was told to stay home for a few days and was given some Cozaar. I got scared, as I was told that my risk of having a stroke was increased because I was on birth control pills. Dh and I talked a lot about it, and we decided that we could swing it if I quit my job to be a SAHM.
I tried to go off of the bp pills about a year ago, but my bp went up again. Until I lose some weight, I will probably always take them.
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