Blood pressure over 200, seeing the nurse

Heart health and blood vessels
1

I'm a newbee to this side of things, I went to see my psychiatric consultant, and naturally they first train in general medical health, and he felt he should take my blood pressure, so naturally I agreed, and told me I was 200 over whatever it should be, so my sister who was with me confers and said it should never be more than 140, so obviously I'm concerned as is my consultant, he said imperitive I get an appt about it within the week, well as things go nowadays the soonest they can see me is 22nd, which is nearly two weeks away.

But I am consulting my sister who is well up having high blood pressure herself and looked after Mum who also had it, as does incidentally my married sister, so as I understand it they check it again, and put you on a regime of tablets, no problem, understand you can't drink on them but I'm not a drinker these days, hardly at all, so won't be a loss, and they don't put on weight and sis maintains they may help calm me down to the point I no longer need to have so much depot injection which I have for my schizophrenia, as it will in some ways double up, and the depot does put me on a lot of weight, which naturally isn't helping and I'm not very good at exercising.

I do try to do some daily workouts at home from the NHS choices website but have late nights and irregular hours, again from my mental health and sometimes I'm too shattered come the morning, if I;ve been up all night.

I also have a prolapsed bowel, distended colon in other words to content with which where the muscles don't function I am violently straining as well as digitating and using a home colonic irrigation kit, I could do with using it five times a day at least, where I am so frequent and its always trapped but they've told me they only issue for once a day and thats all that's advised.

I'm 57 now, I spose I have to expect this stuff.  I try to keep sane with hobbies and I'm artist of the month at the Mad Cucumber restaurant where my framed photos are on display/sale and I recite poetry there once a month as well, and there's art and creative writing, and lots of buffet style entertaining I am doing in the run up to Christmas, but its knocked my confidence a little this, one more illness to chalk up in a sense.

Anyone know how long before or how many checks they have to do before they will allow you to go on medication for high blood?  I'd be really interested to know and a bit reassured, thanks, Fiona

2

Sorry to hear your difficulties. I am only experienced in high blood pressure. I see you have 12 days til your appointment. All I can j tell you is what drives your bp and to cut back as much as possible until you see the doctor. Smoking, alcohol and sodium are huge contributors along with current weight. Exercise helos just 15-30 minutes a day, relaxing mental meditation 2-4 times a day for 10-15 minutes helps. Anxiety and stress can raise bp so good thoughts, your hobbies are a great thing, stay busy have fun but importantly get your rest. Doctors want 8 hours sleep but most people don't get that. Sleep apnea doesn't help and can make it worse as in my case. I have dreams that wake me up constantly but certain sleep meds give my high blood pressure too.

Remember though if you get out on any medications, your body will take time to get use to them and you may experience side effects from those pills. Just call your doctor if you experience anything that is very uncomfortable. Headaches and some dizzy spells might be symptoms at first but can eventually go away. Others symptoms I had was trembling, blurry vision and I called the doctor and he switched medicine which works better. I deal with this daily and even on meds I'm at 140/90 which is a little high but still safe. So pills aren't a cure all but combined with everything to help my bp, j can manage it. Salt intake is harder because I have to watch everything I eat especially at night before bed where high bp may prevent a good night rest. Hope all goes well. Post your updates on here as well as to help other people as well. This forum has some good information. Take care.

3

Thank you for taking the time to read and reply to my post ;-) the information was most useful, take care

4

Does your sister have a BP monitor that you can borrow to use at home?

Many peoples BP goes through the roof as soon as they enter a surgery or hospital.

If she does not have one they are quite cheap to buy in pharmacies. Get an arm one with a cuff not a wrist one. 

5

Hi Derek, no she doesn't have one, she's on tablets now for it, and it does run in the family and mine was very high, said the Consultant even given I had been a bit flustered by circumstances, 200 is a lot so I'll be happy to see them on the 22nd and find out what they are goign to do about it basically, thanks for your input.  I have heard they are very painful, the monitors so would rather wait to be honest.

6

No they are not painful.

My BP is often 210/110 when they check it and much much less at home.

7

Actually they don't really meed to be used on bare skin. I've often had doctors take it over my jacket. 

8

Sorry to hear about your problems, Fiona, but my BP was sometimes up around 200 and after being on 5mg amlodipine for 4 months it's now down to about 140 on average when fully rested. I think it's really necessary to get used to regularly using your own BP machine as you'd be surprised how much lower your BP can go to (compared with when a doctor takes it) when you allow yourself several minutes to fully relax first and perhaps lie back in a chair or on a bed. I think it's the fully relaxed BP that is most important and I haven't found any problems with using my arm monitor.

Regards

Martin

9

Well regardless the Consultant feels there is cause for concern. The band you are sometimes advised to wear is painful and I am very sensitive personally, I had to wear surgical.stocking once well.several.times and each time I thought I was going to die lier ally. I'd much prefer to see what they say on the 22nd

10

I think I've covered this in my reply to Derek

11

My own perspective is I just want proper medication for this not fuss and pain and DIY sorry

12

I think the isea with the doctor giving you a yet is that it assesses what you ARE like under stress as I am frequently therefor his test would be the more accurate in that case.

13

The important this is not to be medicated for a problem that you don't have. My consultant at the hypertension centre thinks that I am not truly hypertensive but have peaks. That is why previous treatment has given me extreme side effects . I have not taken medication for six days and this morning my BP was 110/74.

He now has me taking my BP four times a day with four readings over a 10 minute period.

There are more intrusive ways they can use to take your BP with an implanted device.

14

Well at the end of the day it's personal choice and what your GP decides isn't it. My eldest sister elected not to have the arm band and uses meditation, my othe sister was put straight on tablets without being offered an arm band and personally I know they wouldn't suit me, and I really do not think my Consultant would be asking me to secure an appointment about it within a week if he didn't feel it was a problem thst needs medication. It runs in my family and personally I get frequently stressed by twin ailments if scitzophrenia and an incapacitating bowel complaint and my stress is a permanent feature which is bound to regularly send my blood pressure up. I don't feel there is any question of it not needing to be medicated in my case.