Never Dull!
Well, I have been scrambling like a crazy person to keep up with my life lately. Honestly, I don't know what's different about that. I'm always juggling six hundred things at a time (or at least it feels like that). But as we get ready to wrap up a school quarter things seemed to pile up into the insanity levels. It probably wasn't the best time to have my cardiologist check up.
According to my doctor there is NO need to worry about this, but apparently my blood pressure numbers are still too high. OK, yes, I have had some "orange light" days during the last month. (I use a blood pressure monitor every night, and I get an orange light if either number is too high.) But really, those orange days (with exception of the suicide scare day, and who can blame me for going sky high that day) were barely over the cut off. Like a couple of points at most. But my doctor, after doing the second reading and finding that my numbers were going up during the visit (they have to take one at the beginning, when I'm panicked about being in a doctor's office and one at the end, when I'm starting to calm down) gave me a serious frowny face.
Apparently my super low heart rate (I sit around 55-60 bpm) masks how high my blood pressure really is. At least that was his explanation. He caught it because he did the listen in a stethoscope version and he's got super-doctor-ears or something. I am not a cardiologist so I'm taking his word for it. I do know that my resting heart rate has caused panic in doctors before because apparently it is in line with someone near death. (Again, no worries! After all the testing earlier this year they are pretty sure it's just because I'm a runner.)
So what to do then? Increase my blood pressure med dosage and watch for side effects. I haven't seen anything yet. I have another appointment in a couple weeks to make sure it is doing its job. Honestly I have no idea if it is. My numbers have been about the same on my monitor, but since those are apparently lower than my *real* numbers . . . Eh. I feel OK so I am going to take his advice and not worry about it.
Why all this fuss about going to a cardiologist just for high blood pressure anyway? As I've learned, apparently a gazillion people have hypertension, and it's worse for them. They have higher numbers, and their meds have to be much stronger. Shoot, my doctor isn't even asking me to cut back on the salt! Well, it's that pesky little problem called family history. My cardiologist is also my father's cardiologist, and he still vividly remembers how my father nearly dropped dead rushing through an airport at age 54. My father and my aunt and my grandpa all needed major bypass surgery. And my doctor thinks that my hypertensive crisis a year ago was a call to action to prevent a repeat of history.
The good news of course is that so far so good on preventing heart disease! The bad news is that he wants me to go back to my primary care doc and get all those pesky annual tests done.
Ugh.
Maybe when I have a little less on my plate . . . 😄
According to my doctor there is NO need to worry about this, but apparently my blood pressure numbers are still too high. OK, yes, I have had some "orange light" days during the last month. (I use a blood pressure monitor every night, and I get an orange light if either number is too high.) But really, those orange days (with exception of the suicide scare day, and who can blame me for going sky high that day) were barely over the cut off. Like a couple of points at most. But my doctor, after doing the second reading and finding that my numbers were going up during the visit (they have to take one at the beginning, when I'm panicked about being in a doctor's office and one at the end, when I'm starting to calm down) gave me a serious frowny face.
Apparently my super low heart rate (I sit around 55-60 bpm) masks how high my blood pressure really is. At least that was his explanation. He caught it because he did the listen in a stethoscope version and he's got super-doctor-ears or something. I am not a cardiologist so I'm taking his word for it. I do know that my resting heart rate has caused panic in doctors before because apparently it is in line with someone near death. (Again, no worries! After all the testing earlier this year they are pretty sure it's just because I'm a runner.)
So what to do then? Increase my blood pressure med dosage and watch for side effects. I haven't seen anything yet. I have another appointment in a couple weeks to make sure it is doing its job. Honestly I have no idea if it is. My numbers have been about the same on my monitor, but since those are apparently lower than my *real* numbers . . . Eh. I feel OK so I am going to take his advice and not worry about it.
Why all this fuss about going to a cardiologist just for high blood pressure anyway? As I've learned, apparently a gazillion people have hypertension, and it's worse for them. They have higher numbers, and their meds have to be much stronger. Shoot, my doctor isn't even asking me to cut back on the salt! Well, it's that pesky little problem called family history. My cardiologist is also my father's cardiologist, and he still vividly remembers how my father nearly dropped dead rushing through an airport at age 54. My father and my aunt and my grandpa all needed major bypass surgery. And my doctor thinks that my hypertensive crisis a year ago was a call to action to prevent a repeat of history.
The good news of course is that so far so good on preventing heart disease! The bad news is that he wants me to go back to my primary care doc and get all those pesky annual tests done.
Ugh.
Maybe when I have a little less on my plate . . . 😄
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