Blood pressure: Mine is whacked!

[LindaJoy]

Hi, everyone,

I posted a topic earlier that talked about my calcium channel blocker that I'm on. My blood pressure is doing some weird things (I just got a new blood pressure machine, so I've been able to watch it.). Yesterday, when standing, my systolic would be low, but my diastolic number would go higher than normal. I mean, my top and bottom numbers would be almost the same! This, just since my heart doctor, who doesn't believe in POTS, upped my cardizem since I had a bad tachy episode a few weeks ago.

Also, I woke at 5:30 this morning, like I usually do, in anxiety. So, I took my blood pressure, and it was high--144/85. That's high for me. Then, after the anxiety passed, it went back to normal. When I was hospitalized at the beginning of March, they found that my blood pressure drops while sleeping (76/59). I know I jolt awake every night and go into one of these anxiety spells. Could it be that I'm going into fight or flight because my blood pressure goes too low, then I get anxiety and my blood pressure goes up to combat the low? I'm self-diagnosing again, but my doctor is no help in this.

Can anyone explain my blood pressure fluctuations--big and continuous fluctuations--to me? Thank you.

Linda

Oh, I went back to my normal dose of heart medicine today.

[Gena]

Linda,

"my blood pressure drops while sleeping (76/59). I know I jolt awake every night and go into one of these anxiety spells. Could it be that I'm going into fight or flight because my blood pressure goes too low, then I get anxiety and my blood pressure goes up to combat the low?"

In reference to your quote above, that's exactly what happens to me!! I find that taking Klonopin before bedtime helps with the anxiety in the middle of the night. My BP drops very low while I sleep, I wake up with my heart racing and then I will start to have anxiety/panic on top of that, which just makes things worse. My BP shoots up quickly (not dangerously high though, but still high for me). I've really gotten more adjusted to these episodes now and do not panic anymore. I'm not sure if it's the Klonopin or just knowing what to expect that keeps me more calm. My heart rhythm and breathing will still be kind of funky for a little while when this happens (along with chest pain sometimes), but I can usually fall back asleep now instead of having to get up for a couple of hours.

(My systolic and diastolic numbers are always pretty far apart though, during the day and the night.)

Hope this helps to know that I can empathize with these nighttime episodes!

[vemee]

I am not a doctor by any means but I think you need a new cardiologist. The difference between the diastolic and systolic is known as the pulse pressure. You might do some research on pulse pressure. I know if the pulse pressure is less than 20 it means your perfusion is inadequate. As for your drop in blood pressure at night, I do not know the cause but it does happen to me if I am not taking an antidepressent. It would happen to me as I would fall to sleep and then I would get a lot of anxiety. I thought I was still having depression so I got back on the medicine. Recently after trying to get off the drug again I found that the anxiety coincided with low blood pressure numbers similar to yours. Pot's place site does mention some antidepressents are used to combat pots. You will not get any answers from your present doctor since he does not believe in pots which does not say a lot for him. You should go to someplace like the Cleaveland Clinic for testing or one of the other big time institutions that work with pots.

[LindaJoy]

Thank you, Gena and Vemee for your responses.

Gena, it does help to know that someone understands exactly what I'm going through. I'm not familiar with Klonopin. Is that like Xanax? Sometimes, I'll take a Xanax before bed, but I still have the episodes. I've found that the Xanax works better for me if I take it during or right after an episode.

Vemee, I'm not familiar with perfusion. I'll look it up. Thanks.

LInda