BP now going low at night.

[blizzard2014]

Just when I thought everything was under control, my BP starts dipping at night. It was 86/66 last night and the top number never rose over 90. I don't know much about medical science, but how low does your BP have to drop before you pass out or lose blood flow to the brain? I was a little bit dizzy and might have had a stroke-like moment at the drive thru last night, but overall I was alert and fine. Just got really tired and went to bed. I woke today with a BP of 111/76. I decided not to take any meds for a few hours and all was good. Then I stood up and did 20 minutes worth of vacuuming and my BP went to 150/116. Then I sat down for 15 minutes and it was back down to 118/86. I took my meds a while ago and will see if it goes low again. I have Prematine here which can really elevate my BP if I take a pill. I will break off a small piece of pill and shock my BP back up if needed. Now I am used to treating high and low blood sugar from Insulin, but this whole trying to regulate BP is beyond frustrating. Sometimes I ignore it for a week and was doing that and only decided to check last night because I was jumbling my words at the drive thru and did not feel well. I also checked all day today just to get a better picture about what's happening inside this crumbling old body. I wish I could find a hypochondriac and give them this disease so they can get all of the attention from doc's they crave and go back to my old life lol. But that isn't going to happen anytime soon. I was actually thinking I might be able to get off the BP meds because my BP was low all night, but it spiked in no time just from vacuuming. 😞

[yogini]

It’s normal to have low BPs at night. I’ve had 60/40 before and my doctor was not concerned. This happens even to healthy people and is not part of low BP. Check with your doctor but of the changes you describe serm normal, including the increase in BP during vacuuming.  BP goes IP during exercise.

[Pistol]

The episode at the drive-through sounds exactly like presyncope ( near passing out ), I don't think you need to worry about a stroke. When I get hypotensive I also slur my words or talk nonsense. --- BP going up with exercise is normal but if you continue to run low BP  and experience severe fluctuations in BP your meds may need to be adjusted. I had this happen and after switching / changing dosages of my meds all was well. What you experience may well be due to the heat - your body may need less meds at night or a different med. Please inform your doctor of your symptoms so he/she can review your meds. Best of luck - hope you feel better soon!

[p8d]

The weather plays havoc with my body.  Low BP high BP all in a couple of hours.  My lowest BP was 74/52 (didn’t faint) before fluids and compression stockings one morning and by 11AM it was 200/99 with visitors.  I saw my cardiologist and we switched up meds, significantly.  I suspect come autumn we’ll switch them again. I also am incredibly fluid sensitive.  I can raise or lower my BP by 20+ points slamming 8-16 ounces of fluids in about a half hour.   For me, BP rises with any activity, even talking on the phone, are the norm thanks to hyper POTS. so I pre-treat with an alpha blocker.  I don’t think it’s unusual at all for us to have these swings but do tell your Dr so you can get guidance in how to deal with it.  

[Pistol]

@p8d - that's funny - you are the first person mentioning BP changes or POTS symptoms just from talking on the phone or having visitors! To me the effort it takes to follow a conversation is actually stressful!!! Thanks for sharing - at least I know I am not the only strange one!!! 

[p8d]

@Pistolwhat, us strange?  Never 🤪. Thanks for letting me know it happens to you.  I guess I assumed it happens to most of hyperdystos.  I never really needed a reason to be reclusive but I have one now and I actually understand why!

[StayAtHomeMom]

Sometimes talking while sitting will cause my symptoms to flare. But walking and talking, or talking and smoking a cigarette, or talking loud to speak over something (like my AC unit in my back yard) flares my symptoms more commonly. You are definitely not the only one. I think it is one of my strangest symptoms. It is like it take too much energy to do 2 things at once?

[Bluebonnet08]

I've had low blood pressure a lot.  They say low blood pressure is technically anything under 90/60 with symptoms.  I have had many, many readings with the top number in the 80s, even high 70s.  I've had the bottom number in the 60s & low 50s.  The best way to get it up fast is to chug 1-2 cups of water or gaterade.  It should get it up fairly quickly.  That's what has always been advised to me by doctors.  I now get regular IVs and it keeps my blood pressure from falling quite as low.  

[blizzard2014]

I'm still having issues today, even after cutting my Clonidine pill in half. I waited too long to take BP meds yesterday thinking all would be well and I felt even worse. I had to lay down at 6 PM and slept all the way through the forth. Got back up at midnight, ate some food, and then went back to bed at 3 AM. Got back up at 11 PM then went back to bed at 4 PM until 10 PM earlier tonight. I forced myself to take a shower and actually felt good "normal" full of energy and went grocery shopping for an hour. It felt great. I had tons of energy and was almost like a normal person. My chronic leg pain was even absent. Now I'm back to feeling like crud two hours later. I knew it wasn't going to last. Imma cut my Lisinopril dose in half to 10 mgs a day for a while and see if that helps. Halving the Clonidine down to .5 mgs made my sitting BP stay around 100/76, but my standing BP was still going to 140/106. Maybe I will take a .5 mgs of dine and then another .5 8 hours later and tweak my Lisinopril dose. I also take 30-40 mgs of hydrocodone a day which can also lower BP. I had at least 15 readings today where the machine threw error codes and could not get my BP. I also had a few lows of 90/45. I have the left-sided chest pain again and my HR is still going over 100 even with the meds. I go from 77 BPM to 105 to 120 when walking. I'm getting really frustrated this week. My bowels are slowing because I stopped eating 10 prunes a day and my blood sugar is tripping. I want to forget all of this madness, but the near passing out in the car at drive thru has me worried about getting into a wreck when driving. I have to drive 80 miles round trip for work on Sat and Sun. I hear you can get locked up for DWI if you get in a wreck while on BP meds. Now honestly I don't really know if it is the illness that is making me feel bad or the meds. Any how, thanks for all of the responses. I wanted to chime in that once time when I was monitoring my pulse before I was taking meds for these issues, I had a 20 BPM spike in HR from chewing food or talking. So, those things most definitely cause spikes in BP and pulse. Crazy this condition. So crazy. 

[Pistol]

@blizzard2014 - I really think you need to check with your doc on this. I also mess with my meds at times when I know I need to but that has messed things up further at times. When I personally get into a situation like you I always check with my PCP first and if I can't get him I call my cardiologist and if they do not know I message my autonomic specialist. Be aware that when your body is used to these meds and you cut them in half that can cause a flare. Sometimes it makes a big difference which pill you cut, too. 

[blizzard2014]

10 hours ago, Pistol said:

@blizzard2014 - I really think you need to check with your doc on this. I also mess with my meds at times when I know I need to but that has messed things up further at times. When I personally get into a situation like you I always check with my PCP first and if I can't get him I call my cardiologist and if they do not know I message my autonomic specialist. Be aware that when your body is used to these meds and you cut them in half that can cause a flare. Sometimes it makes a big difference which pill you cut, too. 

I know Pistol. My PCP doesn't even know what autonomic dysfunction is and my Cardiologist said that you can only get low BP when standing and didn't even want to see my standing BP. I dropped him 2 months ago. I do not have a specialist. I only got clonidine because I read that it works for standing BP. I'm going through the process of elimination to see if the full dose of Lisinopril is the culprit or is it the Dine. I just took half a dose of Clonidine with half a dose of Lisinopril and my sitting BP is 118/84. So now I three hours later I took the other half of the Clonidine and will re-test in three hours to see what happens. Then I will add in the other half a dose of Lisinopril and hopefully I can isolate what is causing my BP to go too low. Other than that, they only thing I can do is maintain half doses and stay seated. If I never get off the couch, all will be well I guess. But I am getting runny nose, chills, and pounding HR from standing. It is very uncomfortable. 

[blizzard2014]

I meant to say that three hours after the half doses my sitting BP is 118/84 and standing is 140/110. So it is fixing the low sitting BP, but the standing spikes are still going high, just not to 170/120 like they normally do without the half dose of meds. I'm testing my BP so much this week, my arm is gonna start to bruise up lol.