How Did You Learn You Had High Blood Pressure?

fmdog44

fmdog44

Well-known Member
Location
Houston, Texas
Just saw a doctor say 70,000,000 Americans have nontreated or undertreated blood pressure. I learned mine was high in a dentist office when they were setting up to treat me. Mine was high enough that she refused to pull a tooth. My eye doctor on my last visit said she saw slight vessel damage perhaps due to HBP. I have been on medication since the dentist visit.
 

I'm glad it was caught, FM.

Hubby and I book yearly doctors appointments to have our cholesterol, blood sugar, blood pressure, yada-yada checked.
 
I don't have any BP issues, but my wife was diagnosed with HBP several years ago, during her annual checkup. She's been taking a minor prescription ever since, and that seems to be working. We also keep a BP monitor in the house and check our own a couple times a week.
 

I learned about it with routine lab tests.

Mine is easily treated/controlled with a couple of inexpensive generic prescriptions.

It's good to take these things seriously but it is also important to understand what the numbers mean. I get frustrated because so many medical conditions have had the numbers adjusted downward over the years to include more people than would have been diagnosed in previous generations. That is probably a good thing but we need to understand the significance of our diagnosis and not just assume that we are in the same dire situation as our parents and grandparents.

Years ago I would have said take it with a grain of salt but that is no longer acceptable. ;)
 
I was diagnosed with high blood pressure in the early 1970's when in the Navy. High blood pressure runs in my family. They put me on Atenolol (Tenormin) and I'm still taking them after almost 50 years. Taking these pills my pulse is 45 to 50 bpm which is now normal for me. I'm also on Benazepril HCL.
 
It's curious how the body copes with something like high blood pressure. I'm not sure if I had it or not, but as a child, I had persistent nose bleeds, quite copious amounts of blood discharged. Later as an adult teen, my doctor was going to send me to a specialist but as luck would have it, a worthwhile stunt was organised at my college. All the students went to a local blood donation centre and actually filled the blood bank. From then on I gave blood.......................and the nose bleeds stopped. Back then blood donations were twice yearly, I was giving mine four times yearly.
 
fmdog44 said:
How Did You Learn You Had High Blood Pressure?
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I injured my right tricep ligament, was in a lot of pain...went to Kaiser on a Sunday. They took my blood pressure, told me it was sky-high.
That got my attention[finally], was on a low strength BP med(hydrochlorothiazide) for several years. After I lost over 100 lb.s and adopted a healthy lifestyle the Dr. said I could quit the meds.
 
I have White Coat HBP. When I see a doctor and know he’s going to take my BP, it goes up. If I’m not thinking about that, I’m fine. Sometimes my doctor will take a second reading 5 minutes after the first and it’s down. I have my own pressure monitor and my readings are generally fine.
 
As a youth I tried to enlist in the military but failed the physical exam due to blood pressure problems which I did not know I had.
 
I take blood pressure med but have not been diagnosed with it. I take it for hepatic portal hypertension. That is pressure on the portal vein. It is scarred due to cirrhosis. The med helps me not to get esophageal varrices or sudden bleeding in the esophageas. It can be dangerous to my life and health.
 
horseless carriage said:
It's curious how the body copes with something like high blood pressure. I'm not sure if I had it or not, but as a child, I had persistent nose bleeds, quite copious amounts of blood discharged. Later as an adult teen, my doctor was going to send me to a specialist but as luck would have it, a worthwhile stunt was organised at my college. All the students went to a local blood donation centre and actually filled the blood bank. From then on I gave blood.......................and the nose bleeds stopped. Back then blood donations were twice yearly, I was giving mine four times yearly.
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I also had frequent nosebleeds, not from blood pressure. I had an artery in my nose that was too close to the surface, so a sneeze would be enough to cause a nosebleed. When I was 16, a doctor cauterized it. No problems since.
 
I sat down at one of those machines in the grocery store and the results were horrendous.

I asked the pharmacist if it was malfunctioning and he came out to test it. His was normal, so I did it again while he watched. Even higher.

He told me to get myself to my doctor immediately or even the ER.

I was in my late 40's, active, and right-on my proper weight. Medicine got it down and I've been on meds ever since.
 

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