Is BP medication always for ever?

Any medication will disguise the readings i would have thought, hence you have to stay on the damn things for ever.

Yes, blood pressure does rise and fall with time of day, I can't remember which way it is, Google it.The stress of going to your GP and sitting in the waiting room will push up most people's blood pressure. Which is why GPs now recommend you buy your own monitor and do readings at home, and also calibrate them with the surgery unit, so they know they are giving similar readings.

The medication doesn't disguise BP, it brings it down.

I was diagnosed with high blood pressure when i was 25. I took the meds for a while, stopped for ages, then took them up for a while when I moved and the new GP took readings. then I stopped again.

At the age of 48, I had a massive stroke, nearly two months in hospital, because of a bleed on the brain, basically that is when an artery weakens through high BP and then basically bursts open.

I can't post links as they get moderated, but Google "bleed on the brain NHS" should be third answer down. Two things to look at:

Causes, look at the highlighted one.

Outlook, this gives you the survival rate.

I recovered pretty well, a lot better than some of the people that I have seen, physically and cognitively, I'm pretty much back to normal. I lost the use of my legs whilst in hospital and control in my right arm, I'd go to scrath my nose and ended up parting my hair.

Apart from a very small loss of mobility in my arm (scratching my back etc) and that my balance isn't quite as good as it was, I'm back to normal.

No, they mentioned statins to me (I'm already on 8 prescription meds per day) and I said no way. In the same way, I say BP tablets are fine and you can come off them. Statins are the opposite. If you go on them, they want you on them for life. I've not heard a good word said about them from people that are on them.

During a check up, I said what is the target limit for cholestoral. The nurse said 5.0. I said, right, what am I at, she said, you've come down from 5.5 when you were in hospital to 4.9 now. Right where's the problem? Well we like to be on the safe side.

Six months later for my check up, right cholestoral level please? You're down to 4.2. I'll hear no more about trying to give me statins then please.

I was offered a statin when my Qrisk stood at 15%. I asked the dr if she would take one if she were me and she said emphatically NO. That was good enough for me - in my case it was just a case of being on blood pressure meds that shoves up the risk and being 73.

It's this box ticking mentality that drs have these days that really annoy me. It's not medicine as it should be.

So much less likely to suffer the bleed on the brain stroke, but if you do, it is far more likely to kill you and there is not much they can do, other than keep you sedated, and monitor you.

Luckily my GP recognised the signs straight away (at his surgery), sent me straight to the hospital - it was quicker for my wife to drive than wait for an ambulance (of course he didn't actually tell us this, but he knew what he was doing). He told my wife that I'd need an overnight bag as I wouldn't be coming home (all the time he was talking to her he was on to the bed manager at the local hospital). As soon as I got into A&E, I hardly had time to announce who I was before two nurses whisked me off (I was losing the use of my legs) and stuck me in a bed.

My wife went home to get a bag, came back and I'd already been taken for a CT scan. That hospital didn't think they could handle me, so were sending me to a specialist hospital, but weren't prepared to transport me 10 miles down the road, until they had given me a blood plasma transfusion to stabilise me.

I suppose sometimes luck is on your side and sometimes not.

I don't go in for these standard number tests that decide whether you need medication or not. When I came out of hospital, I was as thin as the walking stick I was using. The dietician was really worried that I had given up eating and my liver was not up to this.

She ordered me in loads of Fortisip, a high protein drink, and gave me a diet sheet (and I kid you not) basically said, have full fat everything, do not eat or drink anything that says low cal or diet on it. My BMI was 24.9, and I said, hey, I'm just in the target area, I don't think I could have got it any lower, unless I wanted to look like I'd escaped from a concentration camp.

But she was like, no, you need to eat more, you need to put weight on, you're not a well person. I said, what about my BMI, I'll go over 25, she said forget those silly numbers.

3 years ago my husband had sepsis although at the time I didn't realise. Now there is a lot more awareness of this and of how rapidly it can kill.  I called an ambulance and from  first calling 999 the response was magnificent. Given that I live in the middle of nowhere and off the beaten track I wished then that we lived on a street with a house number!  intensive care for 4 days due I think in part to septic shock having set in. It took several months to get over that but 3 years on and also a cancer scare he's still here.

I have to go to the dr every 6 months for a check up and fill in a chart of 2 readings each, morning and evening. If I didn't keep a diary every day I feel that I could have 8 days of high readings then she might want to increase the meds which I don't want.

However I'm sure it would be better if I gave up readings for a while at least - it might help  me to relax a bit.

Eat healthy, exrcise and cut out stress where you can. But if it still comes down to BP tablets, then take them. I've been taking various different forms of BP tablets over the years, on and off (mostly off, when it should have been on) and I can't say I hide and side effects from them.

Would I could tell, was when I wasn't on them and I got very stressed, I could feel and hear the blood pounding through my head.