Blood pressure

[cheezit]

all i can say is i would listen to the rest of the comments.
i have a issues myself. i have learned the hardist way possible that when i dont know what i should / do is call my dr. office. if there closed i just head off to the ER.
i would rather be sent home and laughed at.
however your insurace co may have a 800# that you can call there is normally an rn or lpn you can talk to.
be safe get well

[howdy]

In EMS, we take a "nose to naval" approach when it comes to chest pain/heaviness. We consider it cardiac related. It very well might not be a heart problem, but that is what will kill you the quickest. I agree wilth the advise from the above members. I would suggest the ER at a heart hospital. I live in west Houston and we have several ER's in the area. We only have 2 that I would take patients to for possible heart related events. The ER staff at theses 2 hospitals know about cardiac problems and they have the tools and facilities to fix it. Most hospitals will have to call a transfer ambulance and send you to one of these hospitals.

The headaches are probably caused by the high BP. The high BP is the scary part and you need to find out why this is happening. I agree it needs to happen yesterday.

[Medic624]

First of all... Thanks for posting ... It took some courage and may prompt someone else who hasn't talked about it openly to go and be seen.

Second, as I am not going to beat a dead horse here BUT, after 15 yrs as a PM and now going on 6 as a RN with ER and NeuroTrauma ICU (strokes, head injuries etc...) experience this ain't something to mull about.

This is your body saying... HEY!! Something ain't right!

Hopefully you can nip it in the bud and get your Blood psi down to WNL.

[chuck j]

Let us know what the doc said , praying for you . (a fellow hard head )

[jimlongley]

I figure there are enough old farts and medical people here so maybe this would be a good place to ask.
My blood pressure the last 2 days has hit highs of 154/101 and around it, during these times I have a pounding headache at the top of neck,little heaviness in the chest and in general feel like poop warmed over. So questions I have is at what point should I be concerned enough to seek immediate medical help and how can I bring it down in the meantime. I have no idea what is triggering this unless coffee is my new enemy, today about 1/2 way into a movie I started feeling this way and all I had was maybe 2 cups of coffee and cereal. Oh and no lectures about taking care of myself better, I already have a wife for that.

My former doctor, fired for other reasons, suggested that I could reduce some of my symptoms by cutting back on my coffee habit, so I switched to espresso - it's a lot less coffee.

Voting with the others, heaviness in the chest is a good reason to forget about deductibles unless you don't have one on your life insurance.

[anygunanywhere]

You gotta get that blood pressure under control. I do not like doctors either but that hypertension will cut your life way too short.

Anygunanywhere

[JALLEN]

Uncontrolled hypertension is a death sentence in many cases. A good friend came to an end on the road to work, didn't show up, finally found him in some sort of deep coma, died a few days later.

Four years ago, I rode my bike to the pool for a swim one Saturday morning. As I swam the first few laps, it felt like I had forgotten to take my backpack off. I cut the workout short. A buddy gave me and my bike a ride back home, and after feeding the cats, getting cleaned up, I decided I would drop by the ER to see what was going on. I was in no discomfort, let alone distress. I drove over the the hospital, sauntered into the ER, and when I got to the window, announced I had had some tightness in my chest earlier that morning.

Talk about throwing the cat amongst the pigeons! Kowabunga! My rear never touched a chair. They grabbed me into an exam room in an instant, and before I knew it they had all sorts of gear hooked up, BP machines, temperature..... I've never seen anything like it. Pretty soon a doctor came in, eventually called a cardiologist, did their thing and it turned out I had a ~95% blockage and a ~75% blockage in two arteries, and ended up with a stent and a roto-rooter, which they considered much better than me just dropping dead.

The important point here is that I had no pain, no discomfort other than the unusual tightness that went away when I stopped exerting. The years I spent training for triathlons had given me some insight into what kinds of discomfort are effort related and benign, and which are signs of something serious that needs attention. This one was borderline, frankly, and turned out to be serious indeed.

I had no high blood pressure readings more than in the 130's, no other indicators of impending trouble. My BP readings these days are in the 110-115/65-70 range. I had not been as active in the several years before, and had gained a good deal of weight.

I've dropped nearly 50 lbs of that so far, to the point that I no longer get calls to do Wilford Brimley's nude scenes as a body double.

You just can't ignore stuff like the good old days.

[Cedar Park Dad]

I believe you should see a doctor now. The heaviness in the chest along with that high blood pressure is a disaster waiting to happen. I speak from experience.

Agreed. You should go now. Don't be alarmed but this is high and needs to be checked without delay.

[Redneck_Buddha]

Had a FB friend post about this several months ago asking what he should do. 165/104 and climbing. He dropped off FB and found out a week later he was entering rehab for a stroke.

[3dfxMM]

. . . Wilford Brimley's nude scenes as a body double.

Thanks a lot. Now I have to figure out a way to erase that image from my brain.

[VMI77]

That is dangerously high blood pressure. You need to see a doctor right away. Two cups of coffee won't do that by itself.

We live in the same area. If you don't have a doc, let me know, and I will give you a recommendation.

Dangerously high? Not good for certain, but not quite dangerous unless it goes on at that level for a long time. When I was first detected with HBP I was clocking 210/120. Over the short run finding the right BP meds I have clocked 160/100 or so. BP naturally reaches these levels for short periods of time during exertion.

[Redneck_Buddha]

That is dangerously high blood pressure. You need to see a doctor right away. Two cups of coffee won't do that by itself.

We live in the same area. If you don't have a doc, let me know, and I will give you a recommendation.

Dangerously high? Not good for certain, but not quite dangerous unless it goes on at that level for a long time. When I was first detected with HBP I was clocking 210/120. Over the short run finding the right BP meds I have clocked 160/100 or so. BP naturally reaches these levels for short periods of time during exertion.

Fortunately, exercise and an improved diet have allowed me to go off the BP meds. At first I was prescribed Lisinopril, which gave me some horrific side effects but I was switched over to Losartin which worked perfectly.

[VMI77]

Twenty percent of the population has high blood pressure. The signs of heaviness in the chest are classic for pre-infarction or even infarction. I know as I have two stents. The combination of the above is not good. It is very hard to realize that you need to go to the ER or you might die (it was hard for me to tell my wife let's go to the ER). You would not be the first person to die at home with a myocardial infarction and you won't be the last. So, it comes down to the money. The poor trash on Medicaid would have already been in the ER to have it checked. The person who pays the bills for the poor trash sits home and ????. Better to have it checked than to leave your wife with funeral arrangements. Your local doc is not good enough. Go to the ER.

Not necessarily. I have excessively HBP without medication. I went through a period of chest heaviness and tightness so extreme I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be GERD --acid reflux. The chest pains and heaviness went away after a couple months of medication.

[anygunanywhere]

Twenty percent of the population has high blood pressure. The signs of heaviness in the chest are classic for pre-infarction or even infarction. I know as I have two stents. The combination of the above is not good. It is very hard to realize that you need to go to the ER or you might die (it was hard for me to tell my wife let's go to the ER). You would not be the first person to die at home with a myocardial infarction and you won't be the last. So, it comes down to the money. The poor trash on Medicaid would have already been in the ER to have it checked. The person who pays the bills for the poor trash sits home and ????. Better to have it checked than to leave your wife with funeral arrangements. Your local doc is not good enough. Go to the ER.

Not necessarily. I have excessively HBP without medication. I went through a period of chest heaviness and tightness so extreme I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be GERD --acid reflux. The chest pains and heaviness went away after a couple months of medication.

My hypertension stays pretty well controlled most of the ttime. I have an occasional bout with extreme hypertensive crises that require hospitalization. Endocrinologists have scratched their heads trying to resolve my issues. I have benign tumors in my thyroid and adrenal glands. Repeated biopsies have shown no malignancies. The flareups just happen.

Anygunanywhere

[rotor]

Twenty percent of the population has high blood pressure. The signs of heaviness in the chest are classic for pre-infarction or even infarction. I know as I have two stents. The combination of the above is not good. It is very hard to realize that you need to go to the ER or you might die (it was hard for me to tell my wife let's go to the ER). You would not be the first person to die at home with a myocardial infarction and you won't be the last. So, it comes down to the money. The poor trash on Medicaid would have already been in the ER to have it checked. The person who pays the bills for the poor trash sits home and ????. Better to have it checked than to leave your wife with funeral arrangements. Your local doc is not good enough. Go to the ER.

Not necessarily. I have excessively HBP without medication. I went through a period of chest heaviness and tightness so extreme I thought I was having a heart attack. Turned out to be GERD --acid reflux. The chest pains and heaviness went away after a couple months of medication.

Inferior wall MI classic symptoms are heartburn and acid reflux type symptoms. You were lucky. Perhaps that is why so many die at home. They think a Prilosec will cure their problem.