My heart failure nurse has loaned me a blood pressure monitor so I can take my own blood pressure. I have been experiencing dizzy spells. I also have rheumatoid arthritis, this has flared up really badly during lockdown and I've not been able to access timely treatment. I've been in terrible pain and taking co-codamol and paracetamol. I'm worried the arthritis flare will damage my heart and worsen my heart failure and this variability in blood pressure has me even more worried.
I had a 24 heart monitor last week, fitted myself so I hope it worked, I'm awaiting the results of that.
Does anyone else have variable blood pressure? Mine varies from just over the top of normal around 127/85, down to 88/58 within a day. Normally, but not always, the low points come mid day.
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GracieOS
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Yes my BP is very variable it can go from 207/109 to 97/76 in a 'normal' day. I'm on bisoprolol but cannot increase the dose as this drops my BP far too low to the point of collapse. I have discussed this with my cardiologist who said that I could tweak the dose if I wanted to, to help control my ventricular ectopics but have to trade off the drop in BP.
When your heart nurse lent you the monitor, did he/she say anything about logging your readings? Perhaps a three times per day reading over a fortnight and then email or telephone the log in as a report?
If not, you may find doing a daily log very helpful to the medics in working out what is going on. Really, only your medics can say one way or the other if your BP fluctuations are/are not something to worry about but I'd think the only way they could make that determination is with a readings log space out over a one or two week period.
Good to hear, and hopefully after a month of taking those readings and reporting them in, she'll have a better idea of what is going on. How long have you had the monitor?
Please update us when you hear something. It's somewhat reassuring to know your BP stays in a 'normal' range even with the fluctuations but it will be even better to know the final determination.
Hello GracieOS, sorry to hear this. My blood pressure is all over the place. I’ve had severe hypertension for many years & on medication. At the moment my BP is sometimes very high but then extremely low. Strangely I always feel better with high BP, feel awful when it’s low, and do feel a bit dizzy then, often fall fast asleep then wake & wonder where I am. My high readings can be 180/109 or higher, has gone higher now & then with diastolic of 220, low ones are around 100/45, it doesn’t make sense at all. I’m sorry this isn’t much help but just wanted to let you know I’m thinking of you. I do have my own monitor by the way. Strangely enough I’m seeing higher BP around 3pm, but it can vary. Low BP is usually around 5pm.
Yeah, it's the low blood pressure that's causing me problems.
Mine varies alot also, not sure why. Sometimes I think the time of day matters. It is lower a few hours after I take my meds. It is higher if Ive eaten alot of the wrong things especially processed foods full of sodium.
Is your BP affected by exercise? Do you monitor your blood sugar levels on a regular basis? Have you measured your blood oxygen levels to look for sudden drops?
No to monitoring blood sugar level or blood oxygen levels. How do I do that myself? Regarding exercise, yes sometimes my blood pressure is lower afterwards but not always. I have recently though had the need to sit, rest and eat something while out walking.
I discussed the same thing on Monday with my Heart Nurse.
My BP is varying between 160/84, HR is around 50bpm and then it will be 85/60 with a HR of 72 I am taking Entresto . Aspirin, Bisoprolol 7.5mg with a 25mg Eplerenone and a Omeprazole thrown in for good measure.
What I have been told to do is take an Eplerenone one every other day rather than daily and monitor BP for a week,
The other instruction was to take my Pulse Manually rather than using the BP Monitor, as it is much more accurate especially if your having a rush of Ectopic Beats or some thing similar like being Dizzy on Standing,
If you are taking your pulse in your neck when standing be careful you don't cut off the blood supply to your brain or you may be very dizzy as you hit the floor. lol
The reason I use my neck is because after repeat wrist entry angiograms/stents it can alter your pulse location so sometimes I can't find it . I thought at times it was stopping when it would disappear, but I have been told by professionals that it is due to wrist entry after a few times !!!
I was told to change my medication please don't try it by yourself.
Thank you, that's reassuring. I've had the results from the heart monitor and that's fine, as in normal for me. I have regular ectopics but there is no change there. My blood pressure is normally fairly stable on the high side of the normal range these sudden drops are new to me. My heart failure nurse thinks they may of been caused by the co-codemal I've been taking for arthritis pain. My arthritis went untreated for months under lockdown and got really bad, I've now had the joint injections I was waiting for so can ease off the co-codemal. It's a matter of watch this space now to see if my blood pressure is stablised.
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Blood pressure monitor
Anybody tried to increase Entresto dose?
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