High BP

[GrannyE]

My bp has been going up slowly but surely but yesterday was sent to urgent care cos it went up to 206/91 and then over 220. Was on ramipril 1.25mg in the evening but yesterday cos the bp had been high 180/ had taken a ramipril in the am as well. Urgent care put me on 2 ramipril last night and then one am and one in the evening until I see my GP on Monday. Doesn’t everything happen on a Sat? Anyone else have that sort of problem come on and if so why and what did they do about it?

[jeanjeannie50]

High BP can sometimes be the result of not breathing deeply enough.

To reduce BP, take a deep breath in through your nose and then breathe out blowing air out as quickly as you can through the mouth. Mine drops quickly this way, so watch that you don't overdo it.

Works for me without fail.

Jean

[GrannyE in reply to jeanjeannie50]

Thanks. Will try it. I do breath slowly and deeply naturally but fast out through the mouth is something I have not done. Urgent care is asking my GP to look at me on Monday. Difficult to get an appointment nowadays.

[jeanjeannie50 in reply to GrannyE]

Now don't laugh when I tell you this story, but quite a few years ago I thought I'd had a stroke. Looked at my face in the mirror one evening and there was a deep line down by the side of my mouth and earlier when I'd tried to move a really heavy door into my garage I'd had an awful pain in my head!

I rang the NHS 111 number who said it could be a stroke (my worst fear and panic set in). An ambulance was called and the paramedics came and were unable to see anything wrong with my face, but took me off to hospital to be checked out. While in the ambulance my BP was sky high and because of this an alarm kept sounding. My daughter rushed to the hospital too and she also thought I looked perfectly normal and I thought the stroke effect to my mouth must have worn off. Well to cut a long story short, although I was kept in and had lots of tests there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. My fear and my mind had made my BP zoom extremely high. So in a worrying situation I would never trust a high BP reading again.

If I look in my bathroom mirror now in the evening, I can still see that deep line which I guess is just a part of growing older. One consolation was I told a nurse friend about the episode and she told me that she'd done exactly the same thing.

Jean

[GrannyE]

Had a series of blood tests which came out well but my bp is still high and am taking up to 3 ramipril 1.25 a day and my bp is still far too high - (last night 176/84 after 3 ramipril). Have headache most of the time with it. GP had no idea why, not a clue, and asked me to monitor it for two more weeks and come back. It is 13 days now and have another week to go but I need answers as to why it has suddenly shot up. My A/F is mostly OK during this time although have had episodes. To whom should I ask to be referred and do I need scans and if so which ones?

I have been doing the slow breathing of course and the deep breathing in and quick out through mouth.

[GrannyE in reply to GrannyE]

After 2 weeks of being in a dreadful state at last got to see a doc who knew what to do and took me off Ramipril immediately. She became very angry at the way I was treated and even made a follow up appointment during her lunch hour - bless her. She put me on Amlodipine which lowers the systolic and not the diastolic bp and have been much better for it. Am now back on an even keel.

Good luck with this wretched virus everyone. May we all come through this with minimum of problems.