Has ANYONE ever been able to get help with Labile hypertension ??
Basically as the title states- I'm trying to see if anyone has had success tackling this (what has become an impossible) beast?!??
I have been in the ER or urgent care for other reasons altogether and basically been held hostage for just super high blood pressure spikes. So they won't let me leave until it comes down and once it was 220/150-ish. But it is more routinely around the 170's and I'm starting to literally wonder if the actually fucking ACT of taking my blood pressure is beginning to stress me out so much that it's causing the high blood pressure!! You know ?
I can often feel totally zen and sleepy and calm with crazy high spikes. And I can be sweaty and hot and angry and pissed off and shockingly get a reading of totally normal or slightly under normal!! But the last 2 years or so it has gotten to where around 75%-80% of the time it's taken, it's high now and not just a little high but usually in the 160s-170s.
So I feel like that makes sense to just take the regular blood pressure meds but my pcp and cardiologist both say it isn't the proper management if it's still registering normal(or under) readings about 25% of the time still.
So- I'm stuck basically trying to find any reasons or causes or circumstances that make these drastic swings but so far I have no ideas. And like I stated- I actually am now wondering if the whole thing is stressing me out so much that the act of taking it is part of the problem. And if that is the case.... how does one overcome that?
Is there some sort of Fitbit or monitoring thing I could purchase or rent to wear for a week or so to see if it's truly high 80% of the time or just 80% of the time I'm taking it ?!? You know ?!?
I've tried 3 different medications. The first one called clonidine was bad because it temporarily lowered blood pressure but if I took it for multiple days in a row - when I stopped it, I had a rebound reaction that spiked it higher than normal.
Come to find out, my pcp didn't know that medicine caused that rebound higher spiking, but my cardiologist said its only meant to be taken very rarely for a medical procedure, or flying on a plane or some particularly highly stressful occasion.
So the cardiologist gave me another med to try called propranolol and it did literally nothing. I actually often had higher blood pressure AFTER taking it. So I was frustrated with that. (During this time, while experimenting with this medicine, I started to wonder if the literal act of taking my blood pressure could actually raise it...because why would it be higher AFTER taking it ?!). So that medication never worked at all.
Then, this very last drug I was prescribed called hydralazine. I was just very recently prescribed this by my cardiologist and he told me that he would write the prescription out for 25mg and he explained that it was quite a low dose, but it may work, but if not, I could double it even. And if that had no effect, I could ultimately triple it! He also told me it only lasted 6 hours and so if I had a top number over 150 then I could start out with the lowest dose of a single tablet and see what it was about an hour or so later and if it didn't work then I could take two tablets next time. And I was going to be able to modify this medication to my own situation and hopefully it would work.
He told me also that I could take as many as 9 tablets per day if needed. And that this medication was super safe, and in fact it's so safe it's what pregnant women with preeclampsia takes when they have rapidly high blood pressure during pregnancy.
So after the first dose I took it an hour after one tablet and it was higher than before. So I was like a little frustrated but I just thought I'd keep increasing until I saw an effect.
The next day it was 177/119 and i took 2 tablets and an hour later it was less but only 5 points, so 172/115. And he also told me I could stagger them. So I took a 3rd tablet one hour after taking those 2 tablets, since it only lowered 5 points and was still higher than 150 like the directions suggested and so I took a 3rd tablet and waited one hour - (so 2 hours after the first 2 tablets taken, and one hour after the 3rd tablet taken) and it was only 2 more points down 170/112 and so - it was still not in a healthy range unfortunately. BUT... this was the first time I had some success and so it was pretty reassuring in a way.
So, I told my husband the next time it was high, I'd just start out with 3 and maybe it would work a lot better that way.
So 3 days later it was 168/118 and so I took all 3 tablets altogether at once, which was 75mg, (and was the same dose I took last time, except with an hour stagger between the 2nd and 3rd doses), 30 minutes later re-took it and it only lowered the bottom numbers and only 2 points 168/116 (but I will say, ALL the times I took this, it DID lower my pulse rate and significantly- so from 144 down to like 90 or 80-even if I had little or no decrease in the bp).
So I figured I took it a little too early and so I decided to take it in another 30mins (1 hr after taking these 3) and about 15 minutes later I was walking to the bathroom and l peed and all was fine a good and then I finished and washed my hands and distinctly remember feeling a little weird while drying my hands and when I was on my way back to the bed where I was sitting and reading my book I just all of a sudden saw a black tunnel and my vision was like completely gone from the sides and I only had a smaller and smaller circle closing in on me and I yelled so loud for my husband to come to me because I was going to faint and I was terrified. And by the time he entered the room I had such extreme tunnel vision that I only saw a small part of his cheek and I told him I thought I was gonna faint or die and he told me to lie down. Once I was lying down the tiny tunnel slowly began to open up again. And I was overcome with shockingly extreme nausea and I was freezing and shivering but I was covered in sweat all at the same time.
He asked me what it was the last time I took it - and only 15 minutes prior it was 168/116.
So he quickly took it and it was 77/40!!!!!!!
He said later on that he was super scared and thought I may need to have an ambulance come. But he googled something and next thing I know he had me chew up and swallow 2 pseudofed tablets and an entire 200mg caffeine tablet. I also chewed it up and swallowed it.
He made me stay awake. I really wanted to fall asleep but he kept me awake and then in just 5-10 minutes it was already 96/55 and then about 20 minutes after seeing the fucking black tunnel of death it was right back up to 122/77. Just perfect blood pressure. Like the swing that happened to me in that one single hour was the worse I have ever experienced and I am now literally terrified to try anything else for this because this shit is so scary!
But also - I'm told - that living with your blood pressure in the 170s about 75% of the time is harmful for your heart and cardiovascular system as well. So what the hell is one to do with this complex and totally impossible situation ?!?!
I'm serious.
I feel just so so scared to attempt treatment anymore because of this incident.
I mean especially because 3 days apart, I literally took the same exact dose of the same exact medicine with shockingly and DRASTICALLY OPPOSITE results!!
What is someone to do in a situation like that ?!?!
That seems to me like it is so impossible to get under any control.
Please.
Anyone else had any success with a situation this erratic?!?!