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Plague 2021 #1 Hypertensive Crisis
Jan. 18th, 2021 03:37 pmY'all, so far this year is sucking pretty hard. I'm not even going to go into the whole rioting at the Capitol stuff, because the newspapers are all over that shit, but can I just say holy crap.
On a personal level, I finally got to my GP about 10 days ago and she prescribed me a med for hypertension. At first it seemed to be helping a teeny bit, but then it did not and last night my BP was so high that in nonCOVID times I would have gone to the ER. I did call the ER and spoke a very nice nurse who was like yeah, you could come, but OTOH, if you're not having any symptoms like blurred, vision disorientation, or pounding headache, you could just try and relax and hope your BP comes down a bit, b/c we are admitting COVID patients right and left and are pretty much full. So, I broke dry January and had a small amount of rum to try and get my anxious self to relax, and E and I watched an underwater animal documentary, and I guess it worked because I did calm down some, I didn't have a stroke, and I got a good nights sleep and this morning my BP was still far too high, but the far too high it's been for weeks now and not quite in OMG she gonna stroke out territory.
So this morning I called my GP and spoke with her nurse. Nurse got back to me with a new plan. Stop the medication and start a new one (a beta blocker). And tomorrow I have a renal artery ultrasound scheduled to try and find out WTF is going on. I've taken one dose of the beta blocker, and maybe it's just the placebo effect, but I do feel calmer and the pressure in my head seems to be a little less. (Beta blockers are used for both hypertension and anxiety, basically they block the effect of epinepherine and sloooow everything down, which I desperately need right now.) I haven't taken my BP again because what's the point? We'll see how long that lasts. As long as I'm calm, and not having stroke symptoms, I feel like taking my BP will just make me more anxious.
This weekend normally we would be in Tulsa for our big 5 day work conference. Instead I had to attend an all day online meeting on Saturday which was certainly stressful, but I don't really see how it could have precipitated this whole BP crisis.
As for my vision - my R eye remains fine. The left eye has cleared up a little bit - maybe 20%? In bright light I can see well enough to drive, and I can read. In dim light I definitely cannot see well enough to drive and I can only read if I've got a high contrast setting, or I just close my L eye and use the R eye. Basically it is like looking through a veil. In the light it's a light colored veil that I can more or less see through but in dim light it's a dark veil that really obscures most of my vision.
SHEESH, I totally forgot to tell about going to the retinal specialist and the super fun part about getting a shot in my eyeball. It was there I learned that my BP was so high. When they told me what it was, I was like No, it's not, very dismissive, becuase I've always had quite low BP. But I took it when I got home and then took it again the next day and yep, high, so I was able to get into my GP the very next day, which brings up back to where I started this entry.
The good news is that E has been really supportive. I delayed telling him what was going yesterday because I didn't want him to freak out. But he has remained calm and supportive and willing to do whatever is necessary including driving me to the ER and waiting in the car. He drove me into town today to pick up my new medicine. I underestimate his ability to deal with a crisis that isn't his own. The other good news is that my various injuries seems to have really improved and I'm able to manage them with only Tylenol now. Turns out NSAIDS like ibuprofin increase BP and I had been popping those babies like candy for months (years?) now.
So. Writing this out has helped me to calm down a little bit. I really hope to get some answers and some decreases in my BP soon.
On a personal level, I finally got to my GP about 10 days ago and she prescribed me a med for hypertension. At first it seemed to be helping a teeny bit, but then it did not and last night my BP was so high that in nonCOVID times I would have gone to the ER. I did call the ER and spoke a very nice nurse who was like yeah, you could come, but OTOH, if you're not having any symptoms like blurred, vision disorientation, or pounding headache, you could just try and relax and hope your BP comes down a bit, b/c we are admitting COVID patients right and left and are pretty much full. So, I broke dry January and had a small amount of rum to try and get my anxious self to relax, and E and I watched an underwater animal documentary, and I guess it worked because I did calm down some, I didn't have a stroke, and I got a good nights sleep and this morning my BP was still far too high, but the far too high it's been for weeks now and not quite in OMG she gonna stroke out territory.
So this morning I called my GP and spoke with her nurse. Nurse got back to me with a new plan. Stop the medication and start a new one (a beta blocker). And tomorrow I have a renal artery ultrasound scheduled to try and find out WTF is going on. I've taken one dose of the beta blocker, and maybe it's just the placebo effect, but I do feel calmer and the pressure in my head seems to be a little less. (Beta blockers are used for both hypertension and anxiety, basically they block the effect of epinepherine and sloooow everything down, which I desperately need right now.) I haven't taken my BP again because what's the point? We'll see how long that lasts. As long as I'm calm, and not having stroke symptoms, I feel like taking my BP will just make me more anxious.
This weekend normally we would be in Tulsa for our big 5 day work conference. Instead I had to attend an all day online meeting on Saturday which was certainly stressful, but I don't really see how it could have precipitated this whole BP crisis.
As for my vision - my R eye remains fine. The left eye has cleared up a little bit - maybe 20%? In bright light I can see well enough to drive, and I can read. In dim light I definitely cannot see well enough to drive and I can only read if I've got a high contrast setting, or I just close my L eye and use the R eye. Basically it is like looking through a veil. In the light it's a light colored veil that I can more or less see through but in dim light it's a dark veil that really obscures most of my vision.
SHEESH, I totally forgot to tell about going to the retinal specialist and the super fun part about getting a shot in my eyeball. It was there I learned that my BP was so high. When they told me what it was, I was like No, it's not, very dismissive, becuase I've always had quite low BP. But I took it when I got home and then took it again the next day and yep, high, so I was able to get into my GP the very next day, which brings up back to where I started this entry.
The good news is that E has been really supportive. I delayed telling him what was going yesterday because I didn't want him to freak out. But he has remained calm and supportive and willing to do whatever is necessary including driving me to the ER and waiting in the car. He drove me into town today to pick up my new medicine. I underestimate his ability to deal with a crisis that isn't his own. The other good news is that my various injuries seems to have really improved and I'm able to manage them with only Tylenol now. Turns out NSAIDS like ibuprofin increase BP and I had been popping those babies like candy for months (years?) now.
So. Writing this out has helped me to calm down a little bit. I really hope to get some answers and some decreases in my BP soon.
