Sorry! This is the first time I have posted here. More details on the BP problem: I am on Toprol and cartia and have 2 stents. I am becoming vewry concerned because my blood pressure is going in the middle of the night--at almost exactly 1 to 2 a.m. every night to sky high readings like 169/112. I start getting short of breath and dizzy and it is very scary!
I am up a lot late at night due to my job.
Just baot 3 weeks ago, I switched my diet to low sodium, low fat, complex carbs only, etc. I was eating TERRIBLE for about a year and a half due to starting my new business (the one that keeps me up at night). I am not stressed at all at this time and the symptoms have awakened me from a dead sleep.
I am so scared abot another blockage!
Is there any reason why it would only go up like this at night? Dring the day, its is pretty good--around 130/ 80.
How long does it take to see results from better diet and exercise?
Thank for any help out there!
Beth and Vanessa--Thank you so much for taking the time to read my rambling post and respond! I am just really worried right now. I don't want to got back into the hospital, and I want to get off meds. I actually have had pretty good luck with toprol--nothing really bad in the way of strange symptoms, but the cartia is a real drag--especially the wieght gain and the hives. The other medications have been much worse though!
As you were saying--I can realy tell my 24 hr cycle is a big factor. I have always been more of the night person--which I attribute to my parents always working at night as well.
I felt really horrible today until about 6 p.m., and it was just like a light bulb went on and I was able to get up and clean house, go about many more regular tasks than I had earlier in the day.
I am also very alergic to some meds and chemicals and I am wondering if somehow what I am having is an allergic response to something. My basic heart damage first occurred when I was put on Naproxen many years ago and I kept having severe heart palpatations and finally stopped breahting and had to be recesitated. I had told my doctor repeatedly that I thought there was some problem with the medication, but he wouldn't hear me until I pretty much died in the floor!
I have gone throught this with the thalium dye for a stress test (chest nearly exploded before I passed out) and other meds. Thus, I am more than a little leary of the medical community, although I did have a pretty great cardiologist now. He is a specialist in heart rhthyms and does watch more carefully for drug interactions, ect.
I also just eliminated a dish soap I've been using for about 3 weeks that has broken my hands out. There are so many things it could be!
If I keep up this more healthy diet, as I did before, and I start gradually being able to add more exercise, maybe I can lick this. What you said about getting reglar sleep may also be a key. I rarely get more than about 6 hours at a stretch, although I do nap if I can with my little granddaghter, but it isn't always possible.
I also just got over step throat and I wondered if that could be a factor.
Thank you for giving me some encouragement and hope!
I hope tonight is not a repeat of last night. Right now, BP is 127/80.
Vanessa--thank you so much for your kindness and the prayers! I will pray for you too! I didn't mention it before but my MS and my heart problems were better for years after I was prayed for at church and I began to look to The Lord for strength to accomplish the lifestyle changes I needed to get more healthy. I even got well enough to walk all over Europe for a month with my husband on our dream trip. I even hiked (light, but uphill all the way!) in the Alps!
Beth---I know my some of my lapse into unhealthy living again has caused this problem--including lack of sleep. I started my own business online and I never dreamed of the work involved! I wasn't eating right--just eating fast foods and convenience foods--whatever someone put in front of me basically. Then, I am chained to the computer may days and nights. On top of it, I started back smoking AND I don't sleep.
I kicked all this out of my life again just about a month ago after seeing my horror-story blood test reports. I also keep my 3 year old granddaughter and I was getting too weary most days to have any fun at all with her.
I pray I have done this in time!
You can imagine my surprise and aggravation when this blood pressure thing started up! I do think there is something I am doing or taking or have exposed myself too that may be prompting this.
We also had to house professionally sprayed the day before all this started, and my husband thinks it is this exposure.
****Bethsheba--I got your point better about the meds when I reread the posts this morning. Are you saying that taking the meds may actually be causing problems? If somehow I didn't need them anymore I thought there would be some indication, but not a big increase in BP. It is true that they are the one thing I am taking about 1 or 2 hours or so before I have these problems. I am just so afraid that if I suddenly stopped taking them, I would die or something.
How were you able to come off of your meds and how did you know it when was safe?
****I do have complete blood work scheduled again in 3 months (now 2 months). This was at my own request and not my doctor, who thinks he is just humoring me. I got a copy of my lab report and I have looked up everything on there to see what all these things mean and where I am on them.
My sugar (fasting) was also high, but I have been testing vigilantly and so far, since I started on all whole grains and complex carbs--it has been completely normal.
During these BP episodes my sugar is also normal.
One thing I have learned--you really have to take charge of your own care and treatment and not just let a dr lead the way.
The one reason I like my GP I have now (who is also kind of clueless sometimes) is that he does listen, whereas, the others I had when I was so sick were ALWAYS ignoring me and doing things that half-killed me!
This one is younger and more open. He does have a little hand-held thingie that he looks up drug interactions with. That brings me some comfort--but I know to go home and look it up myself too.
Thank goodness for the web!!!!
I may have to stay on the Toprol, becuase it is the only thing I know of that has controled this congenital heart rythym problem which killed my dad and others in my family. My younger cousin, who has never smoked, drank and is skinny as a rail has also been hospitalized with it x2. Both of us have fond some relief on Toprol.
The Cartia can go!!! I hate, hate hate cartia and the wieght gain and hives, etc!
[QUOTE=Rhonda9080;3421498]
Beth---I know my some of my lapse into unhealthy living again has caused this problem--including lack of sleep. I started my own business online and I never dreamed of the work involved! I wasn't eating right--just eating fast foods and convenience foods--whatever someone put in front of me basically.
We've got some things in common, Rhonda. It was my sleep disorder and fatigue that sent me into unhealthy living. I wasn't eating right, either..fast foods and convenience foods and no exercise...the good thing is our eating, smoking, exercise, and sleeping habits can be changed!
[QUOTE]I got your point better about the meds when I reread the posts this morning. Are you saying that taking the meds may actually be causing problems?...
Although the side effects of the meds may be causing problems, the time of day that you take the meds may be causing problems too. What I meant to say is that I was exhausted, and had poor/no concentration on meds (there were lots and lots of other problems but I won't mention them here). It would get to the point where I would be so tired that I would sleep around the clock. After about 20 hours of non stop sleeping, I would feel BETTER, and I would attribute it to getting more sleep. It took me 3 years to figure out that the reason I was feeling better when this happened, was because I didn't take my medication because I had slept through the time when I would normally take it. So it wasn't the fact that I had gotten some sleep...it was the fact that the some of the medication (and side effects) had worked it's way out of my body because I had missed a dose.
So, if you think the meds are interfering with your energy, your motivation levels, and/or your sleep, it may help to take your meds at a different time...for example, if you've been taking them in the morning with breakfast, you might try taking them at night instead, to see if your energy, motivation, and sleep patterns change.
[QUOTE]If somehow I didn't need them anymore I thought there would be some indication, but not a big increase in BP. It is true that they are the one thing I am taking about 1 or 2 hours or so before I have these problems. I am just so afraid that if I suddenly stopped taking them, I would die or something.
I made some major mistakes coming off of medication and I was lucky not to experience any side effects...so don't do as I did...get your pharmacist's and/or your doctors advice first and then check out their advice to see if the literature supports what they are saying...too many horror stories around here about doctors saying you can just stop taking a med!
I stopped taking atenolol, cold turkey, because it was making me suicidal...I bought a monitor as soon as I stopped the medication and I watched my bp climb. Three weeks later I mustered up some courage to go to the doctor for yet another medication (which turned out to be the best of the 5 that I've taken) but stopped taking it cold turkey when it started waking me up at midnight and 3 every night. I had no indication that my pressures would drop...after the fact, I believe what I experienced when I disco'd atenolol, was rebound hypertension and if I had waited perhaps 4-6 weeks after discoing suddenly, I wouldn't have gotten a reading high enough to send me back to the doctor. I suspect the sleep disturbances caused by the last med, the ccb, may have kept my pressures elevated, but I don't know.
[QUOTE]... how did you know it when was safe?
I didn't know it was safe. All I knew was that I didn't want to kill myself by driving into a cement embankment (which was what I was thinking when I was taking the atenolol), and that the sleep disruptions I experienced on the ccb were interfering with my ability to eat right and to exercise!
[QUOTE]... do have complete blood work scheduled again in 3 months (now 2 months). This was at my own request and not my doctor, who thinks he is just humoring me. I got a copy of my lab report and I have looked up everything on there to see what all these things mean and where I am on them.
Good for you!!!!!!!!!!! I have reason to believe that I had electrolyte imbalances on my hct, but my doctor didn't order routine lab work so I can't "prove" it. You were astute and right to request the blood work!
[QUOTE]My sugar (fasting) was also high, but I have been testing vigilantly and so far, since I started on all whole grains and complex carbs--it has been completely normal.
During these BP episodes my sugar is also normal.
I'm so glad! But again, the value of healthy eating.
[QUOTE]...One thing I have learned--you really have to take charge of your own care and treatment and not just let a dr lead the way.
I couldn't agree with you more!
[QUOTE]...He does have a little hand-held thingie that he looks up drug interactions with. That brings me some comfort--but I know to go home and look it up myself too.
Thank goodness for the web!!!!...
Sounds like a good doctor! I don't expect doctors to know everything...but I do expect them to listen to their patients and to do their homework!!
[QUOTE]...I may have to stay on the Toprol, becuase it is the only thing I know of that has controled this congenital heart rythym problem which killed my dad and others in my family. My younger cousin, who has never smoked, drank and is skinny as a rail has also been hospitalized with it x2. Both of us have fond some relief on Toprol.
The Cartia can go!!! I hate, hate hate cartia and the wieght gain and hives, etc!
There's nothing wrong with staying on a med...they can save lives! And they can improve the quality of our lives! But if they make things worse, like the Cartia they can go...
Take care Rhonda...and keep up the healthy life style. It sounds like you're taking charge of your health and I'm sure you'll see the benefits soon.
