WOMENS-HEALTH Messages for December, 2000: Re: Fear & High Blood Pressure

Re: Fear & High Blood Pressure

From: Chris (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Tue, 19 Dec 2000 08:27:53 -0600 (CST)

Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
Next message: Andrea: "period showed up a week early"
Previous message: MUHAMMAD: "Multiseptated Cystic MASS"
In reply to: Scared: "Fear & High Blood Pressure"

At Mon, 18 Dec 2000, Scared wrote: >
>I have to go to my gynocologist tomorrow and have my blood pressure
>checked. It didn't go down when I delivered. I am on blood pressure
>medicine and have been for 3 months. My problem is fear. I have always
>been somewhat nervous at the doctors office, but now I get sick at my
>stomach a week before I have to go. When I do get there and they take
>my bp, I get palpatations and I feel like I might faint. My husband
>bought a home blood pressure monitor because I have been feeling tired
>and faint. At the doctors office my bp is 130/85 and at home it's
>anywher from 110/73 to 100/63.
>Last week I took off work drove an hour to my doctor's office and could
>not make myself go in. I was gripped with fear. This is not rational I
>know, I am not really afraid of my doctor. I just can't control this. I
>feel like and idiot and I'm too embarrassed to tell anyone but my
>husband. Some one please tell me what to do.

Hi! It sounds like what you are experiencing is more than "white coat hypertension". If you have been relatively healthy and are young, you probably don't have a physician other than your gyn. You must not have managed care. The first step would be to establish a relationship with an internal medicine doctor. It sounds like you have a high level of anxiety and he/she can help with this. I have some experience with the blood pressure problems. It may be that your blood pressure is really "normal" and that you react to the stress of being tested in a doctor's office. However, there are lots of stresses in our lives. How do you know this isn't happening to you in other stressful situations? If it happens often enough, then your bp will be elevated more often than not. Also, in the beginning of developing a hypertension problem, others have told me that their blood pressure jumped around a lot before it settled into a steady high. I discovered my hypertension problem by accident in a medical setting. I was having my vitals taken for a laparoscopy and my bp was 160/105! Sure I was nervous but my concern was if this was happening everytime to me when I got nervous or stressed. My bp was normal in the surgeon's office 2 weeks post-op and then high (175/110) when I saw my pcp a week later. My pcp put me on medication immediately and I got a home monitor like you. Most of the time my bp was good but whenever I visited my pcp it would still be very high, and high during some other stressful times (like an argument on the phone with the insurance company) when I managed to take a bp reading. Just recently, after two years of trial and error, my bp was normal in my pcp's office. So, I would suggest starting with an internal medicine type doctor to monitor your blood pressure and address the anxiety problems. Good Luck.

--
Chris S.

Next message: Andrea: "period showed up a week early"
Previous message: MUHAMMAD: "Multiseptated Cystic MASS"
In reply to: Scared: "Fear & High Blood Pressure"

Women's Insurance Checklist from Auto Insurance Quote

use when must restrict search to only the women's health forum...
Enter search keywords:
	Returns per screen: Require all keywords: