Hypertension investigations, better late than never.

Back in 2001 when I had an angiogram that was clear after two stress ECG's had false positives. The consultant said  this time I wlll sort out your BP at my outpatients clinic once and for all. When I didn't hear from him I asked my GP who said there is nothing about it on you discharge notes (written by one of Romanian his students) I phoned his secretary who said its not on your discharge notes.

I then asked my then GP to refer me to the hypertension clinic. He said if I referred every person with hypertension there the queue would stretch from here to the hospital. End of story.

Nowadays with more NHS experience I would have written to the consultant. The best advice I had from a GP was" Patient Power". He said we cannot get appointments brought forward, contact them yourself they do not like that. The first time I did that for an appointment 21 weeks away  got me an appointment for the next week.

The nurse at my GP's surgery will do it. I will ask for it to be done in Mid December.

Check on Hypertension Referral Centres. There are not many around. In theory the NICE regulation is that if your BP is  consistently over 160 systolic you should be referred to one. Most GP's seem not to know that or the existance of the centres.

Interesting and I will research further. 

Interesting and I will research further. 

I never realised that if systolic pressure was 160+ for a period of time that you could/should be referred to hypertension clinic. Mine was consistently over that for years before my latest "crusade" to lower it myself.

Good luck on Friday Derek. Do keep us posted. I sense that we are all going to be there (mentally not physically) with you!!

I got the 160+ fact from the representative of of a company who had developed a new technique to control BP (renal denervation now suspended for further invetigation) and confirmed it from the NICE site. Her mother was 160+ and even with her medical background had a job getting her referred to a clinic.

 

Given it's such a big issue you'd think they'd try harder or  maybe that's why they don't.  Perhaps we ought to start our own campaign.  Enough expertise on this website to write a book or two on blood pressure:

  Hypertension - the True Story and then the following year we could do the sequel - The Return of Hypertension

Yes Derek.  As Fisherman says we are with you in spirit on Friday.  Take care and all the very best.

Personally I don't hold out great hopes for them finding a reason for my hypertension. One would think that a kidney or elsewhere problem would keep it high not fluctuating wildly,

 

Good luck for Friday derek,  mine goes wild but mine is due to fight or flight I  know that for a fact..

So did your doctor not give you pills for it for along time then   I wonder what our bp does when we are asleep has anyone got any clues

I only discovered my high bp when I moved in with my (then) girlfriend (as of April this year, my wife!) and moved surgeries. They did some comprehensive tests and discovered my hypertension. Previously I only went to the docs when I was feeling VERY poorly. Something to do with misplaced macho pride!!

If you ever have a 24 hour BP monitor ask for a print out of it. You will likely be very different from me. 

One I have had hourly readings from 1am as 121/86, 121/78, 157/110, 140/97, 121/84,146/105, 144/89.

Over the 24 hours the average was 141/74.

While awake 142/76

While supposedly asleep 138/68

Highest over the 24 hours was 176/115 at 9.14 am.

Lowest over the 24 hours 121/80. 

Thank you. It will be January 11th before my next appointment . Unless he sees something dramatic in the scans.

The consultant is one of us as he too is a patient. He had a massive heart attack last year and is obviously on medications. When I mentioned it to him he said "Who told you that?, It was nothing, it was a long time ago, well last October.

I'll remember your appointment on 11th Jan as my mother will be 95 years old on that day! She has perfect bp!!!

My mother was in a care home for about eight years as she had dementia but she was the only person there not on any medications. No hypertension and a very strong heart at 92. 

Mum had a slight fall in her cottage last week (she refuses to go into a home but has carers visit her three times a day) and when I reached her I took her to her GP who confirmed that apart from bruising above her eye, her heart was strong, bp excellent and all the signs were that she was pretty much unaffected by her fall. How people of that age keep going is amazing! She puts it down to a diet of herring (called bloaters here in Norfolk). That's all her parents could afford in those pre WW2 days. Very oily fish are herring so could be something in it!!!

Your Mum sounds like a fantastic lady. I feel lke rushing out to buy herring ! How often has your Mum been eating this fish ? There is a book by Michael Pollan called In Defence of Food in which he states that when you buy food, look on the label and if there's anything in it which your grandmother wouldnt recognise, dont eat it! I am in awe of these amazing people that get to great ages. I have a neighbour who is 97 year s old and every day I see her go out with her shoppiing bag to get the bus to the shops. She is strong and sturdy and always helping others. Always smiling. Makes me feel like a wreck ! Right, in the morning, I'm off to get some herring, glad your Mum's ok.

Bess

Ps. Good luck on Friday Derek.

A fall that broke her hip, a hip replacement that didn't work and needed to be redone caused my mothers death. Falls cause many an end. My 91 year old neighbour had heart failure and lived on her own with carers and family help. She had a fall the other week that gave her a bad cut on her head and hastened her end.

I like herring but even fillited ones have too many bones in them for me. Mackeral are better as the bones are a bit bigger and we had them tonight.

My great grandfather was a cooper who made barrels for herring in a small Highland fishing village.

Mum was born in Great Yarmouth in 1920. She was the youngest of 3 girls. My aunts died aged 88 and 92. Mum is still going strong. As a young girl she would be sent down to the quayside to pick up herring that may have fallen out of the baskets when being unloaded from the drifters (drift net trawlers) I pull her leg about it saying it was stealing!! There would be a small army of Scottish ladies who used to gut the herring at the various ports where the drifters tied up. Yarmouth was the most southerly one, although a fee would go pntp Lowestoft. Mum could write a book about those early days and her time in the WAFS in WW2. I can't stand herring but love smoked mackeral.

And those barrels could well have ended up in Great Yarmouth Derek. How fascinating!

He was a Crofter as well as a Cooper. I expect his barrels were all used locally in Helmsdale. Not many fishing boats left there now as the herring have moved on.

Sadly Derek you are right, no herring of any quantity anymore off the East Coast. At one time there were so many drifters that when they moored up you could walk across them from one side of the harbour to the other. Fact. No one thought that fish stocks could ever be over fished. 

I remember going to Wick and seeing the boats like that.