Looking for new med! New to this!

You really don't want to leave your blood pressure at 180/120, it really is a bad idea.

Take it from someone who did, you really won't like the outcome, it may take many years, but it will catch up with you eventually.

Your Gp sounds crazy. You cannot be walking around with it that high! Perhaps you should get a second opinion. I know mine is stress and the doc is pushing for meds and even gives me diazepan to calm down. It is me who has a problem taking them. Good luck & thank you

Thanks, I appreciate what you are saying but sometimes my BP is 130/80 , 180/120 or 140/90 it's so random, I don't know what to do though as my GP won't increase my meds, he has sent me for anxiety treatment and councelling but I worry about my bloodpressure everyday

Have you had a 24 hour or longer BP monitor. You could compare your BP levels with what was happening at the time.

Oh yes derek, I have, the first time my BP was all over the place, then developed a phobia of bp and having councelling now, this happened because I was hypertensive crisis one day at GPs and had to stay for hours, I was very scared I am so scared of doing bp it's awful! my GP thinks I should focus on my anxiety, he thinks that he would only worry if BP was high all the time! I just feel confused

I so understand because I worry about it too even though it must be so counter-productive to do so.  However, they do say that even fluctuating blood pressure can cause harm possibly leading to atrial fibrillation.  Derek has suggested the fitting of a 24 hour BP monitor if you haven't already had one - this would at least show what was happening overnight, and I was recently told, when my monitor failed to record overnight for some reason, that the night-time readings were very important!! 

Yeah, they all tell me that it is the average that counts.

The Hypertension clinic consultant had the theory that my BP is not high but has spikes and that I'm not truly hypertensive and that is why meds give me so many side effects!

 

Mine often fails to record on my home monitor and gives an error message and I take it a few times more until I get a reading. Surgery nurse, paramedics and triage nurse at A&E have all had the same problem with me.

The 24 hour one gives up after three attempts I think.

When I kept a record of what I was doing when wearing one I had a high when loading the washing machine. I had another high when sitting on the seafront killing time before taking it back.

When I have one I seldom sleep as the first time it starts it wakens me then I lay there waiting for it to go off again.

Derek, I know some of the home monitors fail to record, throwing up an error message, when there is an irregular heartbeat.  I used to have this trouble with a previous monitor all the time and had been diagnosed with an irregular heartbeat.  However, it hasn't happened for a long time now for the simple reason that my irregular heartbeat has corrected itself for the moment.  Let's face it, Derek, we're one big "problem"!  My renal consultant calls me his awkward patient - poor soul, my next appointment with him is tomorrow!

I bet a load of men get a "high" when having to do things like load the washing machine - think man flu!!     Only jesting, Derek!

Totally empathise about the sleeplessness when wearing one overnight though.

Omron told me that when I queeried that.

When a previous doctor was retiring he said that his sucessor might have more luck with me than he had. When I said that to the new one he sighed and said that he seemed to have told a lot of patients that.

The retiring one once said that he only knew one other person who suffered as many side effects as me and that was his wife:-)

 

You think that my wife knows how to use the washing machine?? When I had been in hospital I put the things I had brought home into the machine and added the detergent. She asked why I used that one rather than the other one in the big bottle that she had used while I was away.

I told that that was the conditioner.

My hubby, who is usually quite practical, recently emptied the washing machine and hung the clothes on the line....the only problem was I'd loaded it but forgot to start it, so he'd hung out a load of dirty washing!!  How he didn't notice, or query why, it was all bone dry is a mystery to me!

I have this same problem, my phobia councelling nurse said my GP should Write a paper on my BP, she is a nurse as well and has never seen anything like it, she says that I look so well and yet my BP can rise very high! I don't understand why I am so weird! Where are the hypertension clinics? Can you refer yourself? I think it would be a good idea to get some advice from them but I don't think my GP will agree

The hypertension referral clinics are are arond the country but few and far between. You need a referral from your GP. NICE say that if you BP is constantly over 168 you should be referred.

You can Google for them but I'll PM you a link.

Thank you Derek, very good of you, I know my GP won't send me though, he won't even increase my BP meds, he has prescribed me medication for anxiety instead. I hope he is making the right decision

I once put the clothes in the machine at night to wash in the morning and my wife was up before me and emptied it to hang them up.

Another story, our first washing machine was a second hand single tub Hoover with a wringer. She got the shop to phone for a taxi to get it home. She then had the fat middle aged drive carry it up to our third floor flat as he puffed, panted and sweated.

How much did you tip him I asked. The fare was ten shillings she said why would he need a tip as well?

 

Quite!  "ten shillings"!  That was a few years ago - I remember it well....given our ages away now!

We are survivors despite our problems. It was 1961 and we needed the washing machine for nappies that have now gone the same way as shillings.

The Hypertension centre did a lot of tests and scans without anything showing to account for my labile BP and he has not changed my medications.

 

Survivors, yes!    I survived another appointment with renal registrar today who decided that as my blood pressure was still high (180/68) although lower than at the last appointment if it remains similar at home, I should increase one of the BP medications, taking an extra 2mgs of the Doxazosin one in the evenings - not altogether in the am as I am so sensitive ad already experiencing occasional palpitations and shortness of breath when walking for more than about 15 minutes.  Hoping not to have to do this and crossing figers that when I record it myself at home it is somewhat nearer to normal.  Haven't been taking it myself for the last 2-3 weeks as I had horrid dental surgery followed by haemorrhaging when I returned hme needing a return trip for the cavity to be packed and stitched.  That was agony as by that time the anaesthetic had worn off.  Dentist said it had hurt his arm as he was trying to dig the tooth out and in the end said he'd eventually got it out in about 30 pieces, blaming very hard jaw bone!  My legs were shaking like jelly and I dread to think what m blood pressre was doing!  Just how awkward can a patient get! 

Sorry to hear about such bad times.  Doxazosin and other alpha blockers put my heart rate up. As it is also a drug to help men with prostate problems increase their flow how does it effect ladies? 

I can sympathise about the dental treatment as my roots are well embedded in my jaw bone and are hard to get out. Last time I needed to have what was left extracted after a crown broke off. It was a 35 minute job. As it would not budge she decided to drill into the root to give herself something to grip on better. Then the root split into two pieces plus some fragments that she swore she eventually got out. As I was on Warfarin she had to pack the cavity to prevent bleeding.

I commented on the perspiration on her face but she said that it was spray. Two or three days later I had had laser surgery on my prostate and that was a much easier event,

Sorry to hear about such bad times. put my heart rate up

Oh crikey, Derek, can't believe we've both had similar experiences at the dentist. Mine was a crowned tooth too,and I am still getting little shards of tooth coming up out of the gum.  No more bleeding though so that's a relief, especially as my previous FBC showed slight anaemia!  Judging by how big and strong my dentist is and the sighs I heard, I doubt a woman dentist would have got mine out.  I dread future extractions - think I'll have to opt for a general anaesthetic!

As for Doxazosin also being prescribed for men with prostate problems, it really makes you wonder what came first with that drug doesn't it, ie was it originally a drug for prostate treatment which was later found to work on high BP, or vice versa? It must be a nice little earner for the drug companies when they discover that a treatment can be prescribed for different conditions.  Hopefully, it doesn't, as you say, "affect ladies" owing to the fact that they don't have a prostate.  Don't wish it to cause any problems in that area with my kidney condition.  Off to bed now and will look forward to my hot cross bun breakfast tomorrow!  Easter blessings, Derek, and to everyone else 'looking in'.

Have you tried changing your diet. I found that high carbs food raises by BP and when I cut it out of cut down it goes down. Stay away from white bread, potatoes, rice, pasta etc. Certain foods will raise your BP.

 I stick to meat and salad or fish and salad.