Blood pressure spikes/ help please

[lieze]

I am a 53 year old female. My periods stopped 2 years ago. 2 months ago I started experiencing hot flashes. Since then I have times where my BP is spiking for me. I always ran low pulse high. Now pulse is more normal most of the time but I am seeing a rise in BP.  I don’t worry if it is in the teens or even twenties but often feel off because I was used to 90-110 systolic. 

So now when I start feeling bad instead of taking a BP and getting 90/50. I get 130/70-80 or even higher it was 141/70 today. That is so not me. I sat and bawled.

Here is the thing 2 weeks ago I was having one of those spells in the morning. I got a 150 systolic. I called 911. By the time I got into ambulance I was 140 systolic up until 20 min or so after arrival at hospital. Then all of a sudden it crashed to 105/55. My worry is can it be safe for me to treat the high BP if I’m gonna crash like that. 

Also I think it was just yesterday I got a reading of 130 systolic and I don’t usually do this but I waited only like 5 minutes checked it again and I got something like 108/65. So it is moving a lot and probably why I feel like poo.

I am having horrible anxiety and panic along with this. It waxes and wanes all day long.

I am also having migraines. No formal diagnosis but I have all the symptoms. Almost every time I feel the migraine blood pressure also goes up but not every time. I have had the head ache or pressure or distorted vision or vertigo checked it and been in the teens too so not sure there is always a correlation. 

[lieze]

Also call me crazy but I question if my machine itself causes my blood pressure to rise because it inflates so slow. It creates so much pressure on my arm. And takes for ever to fully inflate deflate and get the reading. That whole time my heart is working against that restriction and it feels like the whole process of taking the blood pressure increases symptoms. Any one else notice this. I know I am weird. 

Also I do not have fears like this with manual BP cuffs. They are quick and I do not get that feeling at all. 

[DizzyPopcorn]

I am a certified hypochondriac, so i have some experience with blood pressure taking. 

For the best accurate result, you must always get 4 readings. You discard the first, them average the 3 others. You must wait at least 1 min between each reading

From what you describe, you might just have to buy another machine. Mine doesnt do that at all. It inflates quickly and then deflates back while monitoring the pressure.  I have a relatively expensive omron and it works flawlessly. 

Anxiety and panic will definitely increase your blood pressure. My normal blood pressure is around 118/77, but if i panic (a lot, like a panic attack), i can raise it to a good 160/90. 

Honestly though, why would an ambulance come for a blood pressure of 150? It is nothing to worry about. Not in the short term. Certainly not in an instance of panic. Especially if you have no known other heart related problems. 

Just my 2 cents. I am fairly younger than you are (so my risks of cardiac problems are lower based on statistics) , but im honestly over my fear of blood pressure. Even with headaches and all the symptoms. Worrying about it is going to increase my blood pressure, as well as my heart rate, thereby increasing the risk of what we want to avoid in the first place.  If you get what i mean. 

 

[lieze]

Thank you so much for your reassurance. It means a lot to me.

I always always ran low so seeing the higher readings in addition to how crappy and scared I am feeling freaks me right out.

You did make me feel better though so thank you for taking the time to reassure me.

[DizzyPopcorn]

Np lieze, in fact im sorry if i came a bit cold in my response. Its just, i know where you're coming from. I've done exactly what you did (up to calling an ambulance!) and nothing ever happened to me. 

I know its hard. Really hard. Try to ask for a xanax or ativan prescription from your doctor. That always help me in a pinch if i have a panic attack 

[lieze]

Just checked it middle of night. I am 96/53. I am  not trying to fixate on my blood pressure I am more interested in what the ranges are so I can tell the doctor to determine if any treatment would be appropriate or contraindicated based on how low I dip naturally.

[DizzyPopcorn]

1 hour ago, lieze said:

Just checked it middle of night. I am 96/53. I am  not trying to fixate on my blood pressure I am more interested in what the ranges are so I can tell the doctor to determine if any treatment would be appropriate or contraindicated based on how low I dip naturally.

Thats totally ok lieze. I do that as well sometimes when im trying to find a pattern. What's important is to not get carried too much by the number.  

[bombsh3ll]

Lieze, I know you are in the US but here in the UK even the highest reading you mentioned above would not be treated with medication. Sporadic rises like that are not harmful, indeed they are normal, like during exercise in healthy people. Blood pressure varies throughout the day and is not meant to be the same all the time. 

Antihypertensive medication would definitely not be appropriate for someone whose lower end is 96/53. 

I would go by how you are feeling rather than the numbers. 

My blood pressure and heart rate are normal 99% of the time yet I feel awful upright. 

When I was on licorice root I developed iatrogenic hypertension and was in A&E with BP of 230/120, & I'm still here. Weightlifters get a spike like that when they lift heavy weights. 

B xxx

[Pistol]

@lieze - I am the same age as you and also have spikes in my BP and it can be high one moment and drops really low the next. This is always accompanied by fainting or lightheaded ness. I am on many BP meds and when I run low I use less B.B. and take an extra one when I run high. For me the most recent spell of these varying BPs was caused by allergies. I take Claritin and it has improved somewhat, at least I no longer faint. I agree with what others have said - a systolic BP of 150 is no reason to be concerned. I don’t take my BP unless I am very unwell because mine is so different every time I take it. Just try to be healthy, drink lots of fluids, stay active and take deep breaths and think of something wonderful when you get too worried. Best wishes!

[DizzyPopcorn]

Side story here, but about thinking of something wonderful, i had a bad night and for some reason thought of past summers where i was working on my car with the stereo blasting some good music and a sunny temperature. Those were the good times. It cheered me up because i think i can get back to that once i receive appropriate care

[lieze]

Oh I get the crazy ****** brain when I go through these. It always seems dreadful like I am on my deathbed. That everything is spinning out of control, that I will have a heart attack or a stoke from the pressure I feel. I go absolutely nuts. In these moments I feel ready for a mental institution.

[lieze]

But let me say it is just wonderful to get so much positive reassurance. In fact if I can function at all next time it happens I may come to this thread and read through it for reassurance. 

[p8d]

I am 57 now, diagnosed at 52 and at that time I had very low BPs most of the time.  About 2 years ago at 55 my gyn started me on HRT which was a mistake because it sent my BP soaring.  It was routinely 140/85 mornings supine then dropped on standing to 110/80 and rose as the day went on.  Highest was 190/99.  My cardiologist said what many here have said, temporary is ok but in my case it was similar to a normal persons with rises during the daytime consistently. He also said not to worry or go to the ER unless it was 180/90+ sustained.  I think it’s just my body is finally done with menopause and now I am experiencing what many women do, hypertension post menopause. I went on clonidine (I have hyper POTS) which made everything worse, supine hypertension, rebound hypertension and orthostatic hypotension.  Eventually, thanks to Pistol, I found guanfacine ER for hyper pots and carvedilol for BP.  It took a few months of messing with the dose but I am doing well with reasonable BPs-120-130/80s sitting with some orthostatic hypotension and higher BP supine and at Dr visits but drinking fluids ameliorates that.  I guess don’t panic, it’s fairly normal for women with dys of our age to go through this.  My neuro said onset for dys is usually around menarche and menopause in women and it takes a few years to get over it.  Please let us know how you get on.

 I have an Omron series 10 monitor that I have checked at my Drs to see how it reads compared to theirs and it is spot on.  I had a Welch-Allyn that read from 20-40 points higher than the Drs.  They were happy to have me bring them in to check.

[GinnyIckle]

Hi, I'm 58, diagnosed (finally) at 49. If I had any menopausal symptoms, they got lost in the noise from Sjögren's and hyper POTS, both of which got  bad after a bout of mono in my mid-40s, then worse after I had shingles.

Sometimes with hypovolemia, especially if the BP has gone really low or the PP really narrow, the dysautonomic body will overreact and drive up BP and HR.

I've been having a bad spell with BP going low enough the Braun cuff can't read it (I think it just errors below 40). Then, about the time I'm feeling light-headed and pre-syncopal, the adrenaline kicks in, and the roller-coaster ride begins.

Before I was diagnosed, it got really crazy. They kept telling me I was fine, so I'd try to act it. And I was still on a "healthy" low-salt diet (now, I'm on 8g sodium/day), and no meds, and no compression gear.  I had BP readings from 230/40 to 285/270 to 32/LO, all within 10 minutes, on one very bad day, the rest of which was spent in bed. (I don't recommend it!)

Things that make it worse for me include: being dehydrated; or running low on sodium; or being too hot or even allergic (surface blood vessels dilate, so the blood-vessel volume goes up but the volume of blood available to fill them can't increase to match, not without time and water and electrolytes); or eating a big or high-carb meal (the guts get greedy when they have digesting to do); or, still, doing  too much or resting too infrequently. Any of those can increase my autonomic instability.

Things that help me include a cold drink; more electrolytes (I'm adding a sports electrolyte powder to my drinks); lying down with legs up; small low-carb meals; keeping allergies well-controlled; resting early and often.

I don't know what's causing your rollercoaster BP.  Even just being tired can throw mine for a loop.

If you post again, it might help if you give sBP and dBP for each reading you mention. 140/130, 140/70, and 140/40 are very different!

Including HR helps, too: Even if BP is a steady 110/60, the situation is very different with a HR of 240 or 120 or 60 or 30. 

Best wishes!

 

[GinnyIckle]

Speaking of pulse pressure ...

An screenshot of a few readings from a recent bad day. And another from today, which hasn't been terrific.

When the pulse pressure gets really narrow, I get numbness  and tingling in my face and hands, and start getting tunnel vision. At that point, a high BP is a relief!

(PP narrower than 20 is not a good thing, especially when combined with low BP. Blood must flow! Normal pulse pressure is more like 40 mm Hg )

I'm taking a lot of readings now because I want to be able to show my doctors what's been going on.

It would be even better if I could add notes to say what I had been doing before a reading, and whether it was taken standing, sitting, or lying down, but the Braun app doesn't do that.

I'm getting tempted to shell out for the Withings cuff; their app, I've just discovered, allows notes and tracks pulse pressure. (Omron makes a great cuff, and may be another alternative, but I haven't checked on their app yet.)