J
Jim
Guest
I'll try to make this as short a possible. Recently went to give blood right after work, got
rejected from donating due to blood pressure of 143/101, very stressful day at work. Went to see my
regular doctor the next day and bp was again elevated at 140/102, I expected this though due to
anxiety. I have pretty good white coat hypertension and it always elevated on a regular checkup,
when I know I'm going to get it checked, it sky rockets along with my pulse. Had a physical last
year and all was good, including bp. Been with this Dr for about 12 years and always had good bp but
always a little elevated in her office.
Dr. told me to get a blood pressure thing and monitor at home. Measured at home for about a month
and average was about 125/81, sometimes a little lower, sometimes little higher. Went to see
Dr's nurse to check bp and check home device for accuracy and determined home device was
accurate but only glanced at the bp readings and determined it was close to the readings she
got. At the Dr's office that day bp was 135/100.
I checked bp for about a month and went weekly with my summary sheet to Dr. but never saw Dr just
assistant. Got a call last week to make an appointment with Dr since bp looked good at home but not
in the office, she wanted to see my home device and verify it again. Went yesterday, brought along
my little sheet of paper as she was looking it over she suddenly announced that she was not letting
me leave the office without an ecg and that she was going to schedule a stress test for me. After
looking at my results for the past month all of a sudden she declared that my blood pressure was
good but my pulse was high in my recorded results from home and she thought it was too high and
immediately declared that I could have heart disease. My recorded pulse results from the bp device
were between 85 and 105 but averaged around 90. She did an ecg, looked at it briefly and said it
looked okay. As I was leaving however she was telling her staff that she was very far behind and
then mumbled something to me about how it could just be anxiety. What really concerns me about this
is that she never asked me any of the following which I think would be critical before suggesting
that someone has heart disease and scaring the **** out of them, here's the questions she never
asked and what my response would have been:
E: Never asked me when I was taking my bp measurements at home
F: Take bp and pulse in the morning before getting ready for work and after exercise(25 minutes on
treadmill or bike)
G: Take it at night either while dinner is cooking or after dinner
H: Never asked me about my eating habits
I: Eating low carb during the week but usually cheat on the weekends, lose the same 4 lbs then gain
it back. Usually eat 3 to 4 salads for lunch per week, just oil and vinegar dressing. Dinner is
meat and non-starchy vegetables but do have a sweet tooth at times.
J: Never asked about drug or alcohol use
K: Usually have 8 or 10 beers on one weekend night.
L: Never asked if I was taking any supplements
M: for the last 10+ years, take a multi, b-100, e-400, c-1000 every morning.
N: Never asked about stress
O: Very stressed at work, full time and work at home at night. 2 Kids, 1 dog, 3 birds, bills and
planning to leave on vacation this friday(packing, house in disarray, getting everything caught
up before leaving) and I absolutely do not like flying and I've been anxious about flying for
over a month. Just thinking about the vacation that we planned over 1 year ago being only 2 days
away can get my heart racing.
P: Any coffee or other stimulants
Q: Been trying to quit smoking and chew nicotine gum almost constantly from waking until going to
sleep, but still have an occasional butt.
R: Stopped coffee about a week ago but was drinking 1 or 2 16oz cups a day before that.
There's probably more but these are the ones that I think she should have at least asked. I never
knew how or when I should test resting heart rate until yesterday but from what I understand now
that checking after exercise or smoking and checking while trying to make dinner or after eating
is probably not the optimal times. I did start to check it yesterday and today and when I'm
really relaxing or sitting at my desk it's been between 72 and 85. When I'm stressed it goes a
little higher.
Okay, so I know that I'm not the picture of health, 41 years old, 235 lbs, 5'11". There are some
things that I need to change and in a way this has been a wake up call. Stopped smoking as of
yesterday. Cut nicotine gum consumption down to as few a day as possible. I use my treadmill on
average about 3 times a week for about 20 minutes each. I feel good for most of the time but do have
classic symptoms of stress or anxiety.
So now Dr isn't available today or Thursday and I'm leaving Friday for vacation but can't help
but thinking that I'm about to drop dead from what she told me but I can't see how she could
even suggest any type of diagnosis from just looking at the spreadsheets that I've brought in
without verifying the equipment I was testing with and without asking any other questions. What
do you think ?
Thanks....
rejected from donating due to blood pressure of 143/101, very stressful day at work. Went to see my
regular doctor the next day and bp was again elevated at 140/102, I expected this though due to
anxiety. I have pretty good white coat hypertension and it always elevated on a regular checkup,
when I know I'm going to get it checked, it sky rockets along with my pulse. Had a physical last
year and all was good, including bp. Been with this Dr for about 12 years and always had good bp but
always a little elevated in her office.
Dr. told me to get a blood pressure thing and monitor at home. Measured at home for about a month
and average was about 125/81, sometimes a little lower, sometimes little higher. Went to see
Dr's nurse to check bp and check home device for accuracy and determined home device was
accurate but only glanced at the bp readings and determined it was close to the readings she
got. At the Dr's office that day bp was 135/100.
I checked bp for about a month and went weekly with my summary sheet to Dr. but never saw Dr just
assistant. Got a call last week to make an appointment with Dr since bp looked good at home but not
in the office, she wanted to see my home device and verify it again. Went yesterday, brought along
my little sheet of paper as she was looking it over she suddenly announced that she was not letting
me leave the office without an ecg and that she was going to schedule a stress test for me. After
looking at my results for the past month all of a sudden she declared that my blood pressure was
good but my pulse was high in my recorded results from home and she thought it was too high and
immediately declared that I could have heart disease. My recorded pulse results from the bp device
were between 85 and 105 but averaged around 90. She did an ecg, looked at it briefly and said it
looked okay. As I was leaving however she was telling her staff that she was very far behind and
then mumbled something to me about how it could just be anxiety. What really concerns me about this
is that she never asked me any of the following which I think would be critical before suggesting
that someone has heart disease and scaring the **** out of them, here's the questions she never
asked and what my response would have been:
E: Never asked me when I was taking my bp measurements at home
F: Take bp and pulse in the morning before getting ready for work and after exercise(25 minutes on
treadmill or bike)
G: Take it at night either while dinner is cooking or after dinner
H: Never asked me about my eating habits
I: Eating low carb during the week but usually cheat on the weekends, lose the same 4 lbs then gain
it back. Usually eat 3 to 4 salads for lunch per week, just oil and vinegar dressing. Dinner is
meat and non-starchy vegetables but do have a sweet tooth at times.
J: Never asked about drug or alcohol use
K: Usually have 8 or 10 beers on one weekend night.
L: Never asked if I was taking any supplements
M: for the last 10+ years, take a multi, b-100, e-400, c-1000 every morning.
N: Never asked about stress
O: Very stressed at work, full time and work at home at night. 2 Kids, 1 dog, 3 birds, bills and
planning to leave on vacation this friday(packing, house in disarray, getting everything caught
up before leaving) and I absolutely do not like flying and I've been anxious about flying for
over a month. Just thinking about the vacation that we planned over 1 year ago being only 2 days
away can get my heart racing.
P: Any coffee or other stimulants
Q: Been trying to quit smoking and chew nicotine gum almost constantly from waking until going to
sleep, but still have an occasional butt.
R: Stopped coffee about a week ago but was drinking 1 or 2 16oz cups a day before that.
There's probably more but these are the ones that I think she should have at least asked. I never
knew how or when I should test resting heart rate until yesterday but from what I understand now
that checking after exercise or smoking and checking while trying to make dinner or after eating
is probably not the optimal times. I did start to check it yesterday and today and when I'm
really relaxing or sitting at my desk it's been between 72 and 85. When I'm stressed it goes a
little higher.
Okay, so I know that I'm not the picture of health, 41 years old, 235 lbs, 5'11". There are some
things that I need to change and in a way this has been a wake up call. Stopped smoking as of
yesterday. Cut nicotine gum consumption down to as few a day as possible. I use my treadmill on
average about 3 times a week for about 20 minutes each. I feel good for most of the time but do have
classic symptoms of stress or anxiety.
So now Dr isn't available today or Thursday and I'm leaving Friday for vacation but can't help
but thinking that I'm about to drop dead from what she told me but I can't see how she could
even suggest any type of diagnosis from just looking at the spreadsheets that I've brought in
without verifying the equipment I was testing with and without asking any other questions. What
do you think ?
Thanks....
