Blood Pressure Machines Guide

What is wrong with me. ?

I was a healthy 27 year old until two monts ago when I got 3 sessions of sclerotherapy injections (55-60 injections) each session. All this started right afterwards. It may just be a coincidence, but I was fine before hand.

Symptoms (listed from most concerning to least)

1) Randomly almost blacking out. Nothing seems to bring it on. I am not anxious or nervous prior to it happening. I will be sitting there and all of a sudden I start to blackout, become flushed, seeing stars, dizzy and my heart feels like it is beating very hard. I have never completely gone unconscious, but have come very close. It has happened on 6/25, 7/1, 7/8, 7/9, 7/22, 8/7, 8/20, and 8/29.

2) Chest discomfort/pressure/squeezing in upper left chest. The discomfort is also constant at this point but does decreases when I apply pressure to the area. The pain increases with exercise. It will sometimes reradiate up into the left side of my neck, jaw, and left ear. When the pain/pressure goes up into my neck it pulsates with the beats of my heart. I constantly feel my heart pounding in my chest and the left side of neck. When I sit or lay down by head seems to move with the beats of my heat. It seems like my heart is beating very had, not fast just hard. I also experience a lot of fatigue with this. This symptom seems to increase slightly throughout the day and peak in the late afternoon and evening.

3) My head frequently feels full and it is sometimes hard to focus my eyes. I frequently feel slightly dizzy. I will get sharp pains in my temples and sometimes a sharp pain or tingling feeling on the top right part of my head. Will on occasion get some ringing in my left eat for a few seconds.

4) Muscle spasms/twitches in right shoulder. It will usually start out that the front muscle of my right shoulder getting tight and then it will start to twitch forward. Sometimes it will stop there, but sometimes it gets worse and will twitch forward, up and around and then my shoulder blades with contract together. If I am moving around and doing stuff it will not happen. It only seems to occur when I am relaxing or not using those muscles. The first time it happened I had no control over it and it lasted for over 24 hours. It is now to the point that it is infrequent and if I concentrate I can get it not to spasm, but as soon as I try to relax, it will start back up. When I wake up at night my shoulders are frequently sore, tight and sometime my shoulders to the middle of my upper arms are asleep. Occasionally my entire left arm will be asleep. It does not matter if I am sleeping on it or not.

5) Discomfort/pressure in my right side. It is 2-3 inches up from my hip bone and near the base of my ribcage. When I stand up it is more towards the front. When I lay down I feel it more towards the side and back. When I sit it feels like the bottom of my rib is poking into something. The did an ultrasound and it came back normal.

Tests Completed

7/15/08 – 24 hour heat monitor, no symptoms during test EKG – Done at first ER visit and at Dr’s office 7/27/08 – MRI of brain and neck 7/27/08 – Ativan prescribed by ER for muscle spasms, didn’t work 7/28/08 – Muscle relaxant prescribed by Dr. for muscle spasms, didn’t work 8/15/08 – Naproxen prescribed to see if it is inflammation (helped slightly) 8/22/08- 6 day course of steroids (seemed to help the first two days, then not at all after that) 8/27/08 – Ultrasound of right side Lots of blood work! All came back fine.

I see a neurologist next week and an endocrinologist at the end of the month. I do have polycystic ovarian syndrome, hypoglycemia and am lactose intolerant

Any suggestions are welcomed!

For the chest area.>> Sounds like you may be experiencing Heart Palpitations. Sometimes it can happen so strong that they can cause dizzyness and discomfort. I get them alot. Sometimes they are so hard for me I can watch my shirt go in and out, and I feel like I could pass out. I can even hear it too. Causes of them is Caffine, smoking, stress. Theres more but I can’t think of it, but I do know those are the main causes. Heart Palpitations are nothing to worry about though, I promise. I went to a doc about them myself.

Ringing of the ears, pain in the temples, and uncontrolled muscle spasm can be small Seizures. My daughter has seizures and gets severe pain on the right side of her head afterward. They can be scary because they are not the convulsion kind. she never knows she is having one til they are done. I can barely tell either. Definitly keep your Neuroligist appointment.

Muscle spasms could also be caused from stress, When the body is overly stressed, the nerve endings can cause muscles to twitch, and last for days.

Try to learn to relax, I bet you are perfectly heathy person, sit in a hot tub, read a calming type of book, meditate.

Good Luck too you!!

What do you think about this bit of prose I wrote (vampire story)?

A tall, thin, blond woman was lying on the operating table. Two pints of blood had been transfused into her already. A nurse had just attached a third pint of whole blood to a catheter that fed into a large blood vessel in her thigh.

She had been hit by a car. A policeman had explained the accident to the ER staff, and the nurse told Dr. Schweinkopf the details.

Witnesses told the police that the woman wearing a jogging suit had run at full speed out into morning rush hour traffic. It was the act of a crazy person. She caused a series of collisions as cars braked and slid into one another. She might have been fleeing something or somebody. She had made it across three lanes of a major street, but then got hit by a Japanese sports car going at least fifty miles per hour. She had no identification on her. The police wanted to talk to her if possible.

The doctor could see that she had suffered massive injuries. She had a deep gash in the center of her face right next to her nose. He looked at the set of x-rays. Her left collarbone and upper left arm bone, the humerus, were shattered. She had six broken ribs. Scariest of all, she had two fractured cervical vertebrae. Her right leg was broken. She had dozens of cuts on her arm and shoulder, some still had little pieces of windshield glass stuck in them. Oddly, her cuts were hardly bleeding.

The doctor checked her vital signs. Her vital signs had stabilized, but the chart of her vital signs when she was admitted to the ER was disturbing. Her body temperature and blood pressure had been impossibly low. The doctor was irritated; obviously the blood pressure monitoring device had not been working correctly. Nobody could have blood pressure that low and still be alive.

He looked at her cranial x-rays. There was also a massive wound to the back of her head. Something had pierced the back of the woman’s skull and entered her brain quite deeply. From the looks of the wound to her face, it seemed as if something might have completed transfixed the womans’ head. But that was impossible. Such a wound would have killed any person.

A neurosurgeon was on his way to the hospital. The woman should be dead, but she was still breathing and her heart was puming at over thirty beats per minute. Soon the doctor would have a colleague available to verify the medical miracle that lay on the operating table in front of him. There was no possible explanation for her survival from such terrible injuries.

He checked the lab’s analysis of the blood that had been taken from her when she was admitted. There were no drugs of alcohol. Then he saw it – the key to the mystery. The woman’s blood had a super-abundance of free pluripotent stem cells.

Dr. Schweinkopf had recently read about the phenomenon of free floating stem cells in a medical journal. The journal had reported that free floating stem cells occurred in the blood of persons afflicted by third stage vampirism.

He had turned away from the patient to read the blood report. He heard a rustling noise behind him, and spun quickly around.

The blond woman was sitting up on the operating table, her eyes were open, and she was looking at him.

I am going to be VERY picky but i think thats what you wanted so here ya go

A tall, thin, blond woman was lying on the operating table. Two pints of blood had been transfused into her already. A nurse had just attached a third pint of whole blood to a catheter that fed into a large blood vessel in her thigh.

***this wasnt too bad, I would change the word tall to something like long because if she’s laying down she isnt tall, if that makes any sense lol. also, i would change the second period to a comma***

She had been hit by a car. A policeman had explained the accident to the ER staff, and the nurse told Dr. Schweinkopf the details.

***I don’t know what age group you are going for, but I think that you should describe her wounds, it will give a better picture***

Witnesses told the police that the woman wearing a jogging suit had run at full speed out into morning rush hour traffic. It was the act of a crazy person. She caused a series of collisions as cars braked and slid into one another. She might have been fleeing something or somebody. She had made it across three lanes of a major street, but then got hit by a Japanese sports car going at least fifty miles per hour. She had no identification on her. The police wanted to talk to her if possible.

***I don’t think you should describe the jogging suit by witnesses saying it, it would still have been on when the cops found her right? so why would the witnesses need to tell them that. I would also describe that in the first paragraph so you don’t have to backtrack on the description of her. I wouldn’t say "crazy person", seems a bit cheesy. instead of major street I would put major intersection, major highway, the I-85 or something to get a better picture. For the collisions I would describe the scene, like what the cops saw instead of telling it blandly. How the crap do they know the car was going at least 50 MPH? I would just put speeding or something, then I would blend the last two sentences together***

The doctor could see that she had suffered massive injuries. She had a deep gash in the center of her face right next to her nose. He looked at the set of x-rays. Her left collarbone and upper left arm bone, the humerus, were shattered. She had six broken ribs. Scariest of all, she had two fractured cervical vertebrae. Her right leg was broken. She had dozens of cuts on her arm and shoulder, some still had little pieces of windshield glass stuck in them. Oddly, her cuts were hardly bleeding.

***lol, sorry i didnt see this part, I would just copy and paste this part to a bit earlier because it feels like you flipping back and forth a little bit. sorry again lol my bad. I would also maybe get a little more creative here in describing her injuries***

The doctor checked her vital signs. Her vital signs had stabilized, but the chart of her vital signs when she was admitted to the ER was disturbing. Her body temperature and blood pressure had been impossibly low. The doctor was irritated; obviously the blood pressure monitoring device had not been working correctly. Nobody could have blood pressure that low and still be alive.

***I really like where your going with this paragraph, the right words and it could really be powerful, its where you basically find out something is not right, you need to make it pop a bit more, make the reader feel uneasy***

He looked at her cranial x-rays. There was also a massive wound to the back of her head. Something had pierced the back of the woman’s skull and entered her brain quite deeply. From the looks of the wound to her face, it seemed as if something might have completed transfixed the womans’ head. But that was impossible. Such a wound would have killed any person.

**I think you’re going a bit far, its getting a little cheesy here***

A neurosurgeon was on his way to the hospital. The woman should be dead, but she was still breathing and her heart was puming at over thirty beats per minute. Soon the doctor would have a colleague available to verify the medical miracle that lay on the operating table in front of him. There was no possible explanation for her survival from such terrible injuries.

***I would probably try to shorten this part up a bit, if not take it out all together***

He checked the lab’s analysis of the blood that had been taken from her when she was admitted. There were no drugs of alcohol. Then he saw it – the key to the mystery. The woman’s blood had a super-abundance of free pluripotent stem cells.

***I like where you’re going***

Dr. Schweinkopf had recently read about the phenomenon of free floating stem cells in a medical journal. The journal had reported that free floating stem cells occurred in the blood of persons afflicted by third stage vampirism.

He had turned away from the patient to read the blood report. He heard a rustling noise behind him, and spun quickly around.

The blond woman was sitting up on the operating table, her eyes wer

My blood pressure reads high on the machines, but 2 doctors told me my blood pressure is normal. why?

They used the manual blood pressure thing where you have to squeeze a pump to do it. EDUCATED answers only please.

You don’t say, but I assume you were taking your blood pressure on an automatic blood pressure machine. They are notorious for losing their calibration, which leads to inaccurate readings. I would go with the manual readings done in your doctors’ office.

What you might do is take your cuff in to the doctors’ office and have it checked. I’m sure a nurse will be glad to do it for you without charge. If you have the manual, it probably has instructions for recalibrating the machine.

Pain in left arm and leg, stiff ankle?

I’ve had similar pains before, but never at the same time, and rarely any ankle problems. The pain is sort of a dull ache. It started this morning below the elbow down to the wrist; in the afternoon, it spanned my entire arm up to the shoulder. It stopped for a short period of time, but then when I put weight on it, it came back. In the evening, my leg started aching from the knee down, and my ankle became stiff, though not swollen; it feels like it’s pushing back when I try to rotate it. I think it’s beginning to worsen and crawl up my neck and to the back of my shoulder, but it could just be from hunching over this monitor. I tried stretching, but it didn’t help much. I haven’t taken any pain killers, either.

I’ve had pains in my chest before, but it was never serious, and I haven’t felt any today. I do have high blood pressure, but I’m taking herbal medication for that, so I doubt these are side-effects. The only thing I can think of, is that I sometimes get upper arm pains because of the hot weather, but never enough to hit my entire left side like this. It is now night(significantly cooler), but they’re not subsiding.

Does anybody have any thoughts on this? It would be greatly appreciated.

The first thing I would suggest is that you stop taking the herbal medication. Self-medicating is extremely dangerous.
You should have your blood pressure checked and if it is out of order, then the appropriate prescription medication should be ordered for you and very strictly adhered to.
While you are being checked for the blood pressure problem, tell the doctor what you have written here.
It could be a posture problem, but just to make sure ask the doctor to check you over.
He will know what to look for after you tell him the facts as you outlined them here.
Finally, tell the doctor about any medications you are on, or better still, take the medications to him and he can sort through them. He will advise you what to do with them. Any which are out of date or any you will not have further use for should remain with the doctor for safe disposal.

Question about blood pressure (81/50) ?

I have one of those home blood pressure monitors. Mine just said 81/50. How low is this compared to most people’s?
I have also been very active througout my life and I’m on leukemia medication which may have affected it.
It’s 81/40, sorry,

um i dunno but i got apl leukemia too and blood pressure isnt much of a problem,
btw i sent u an email, since u got apl too, i was wondering if i could exchange some words with u, since we got the same sickness and were both sixteen, my email is mamoun_mahayni@hotmail.com
plz add me, we could really benefit from this

Are people more accurate than machines when taking blood pressure?

Yes. The machines we use can only do so much. If a pulse is hard to hear or it is irregular the machine may provide a false blood pressure. When we take it manually we can sometimes hear the pulse better.

Last week the machine I was using couldn’t get my patients blood pressure at all. When I went to take it manually I discovered an irregular pulse….long story short her heart had converted into an abnormal rhythm and she needed to be moved to a cardiac floor.

Chest Pain High Blood Pressure Normal test results?

I am a 51 year old female smoker. I have been having Chest Pains (left side) for over a year, finally they started getting really bad taking my breath away, right arm hurt upper left back pain, left side neck pain, high blood pressure (when it was always low), fluid retention in my ankles and fingers upon waking up at 4 am for weeks now (blood pressure is highest at that time). Went to Urgent Care and was sent to the Emergency Room. Given 2 doses of Nitro, Moraphine and put on a Heart Monitor, had blood work, chest x-ray, EKG, Heart Ultrasound, all came back normal, sent home with Motrin 800. No blood pressure meds were given. The bottom number when I was admitted was 125 and when I was released was 96. The top never got over 168. Been home for 5 days and still living with JOLTS of chest pain on and off throughout the day and my left chest is always dull and aches. I have some pain in my left side under my chest but more towards the middle and directly behind that spot in my back. Could they have missed something. Never had any anxiety and don’t feel stressed. My father had triple bypass Surgery at age 54 with none of these signs. I know these pains are not in my head as they make me double over and sometime yell out. Help please!
Thanks to all, I have an appointment with my Primary Doctor this morning, I do take chewable 81mg aspirin. I know I need to quit smoking, going to ask for help today.
Went to my primary Doctor yesterday, gave me a prescription for Nitroglycerin and ran some blood tests, put on blood pressure meds. Thinks I may have a partiallly blocked artery. Why wouldn’t that show on the Heart Ultrasound?

you need to see a cardiologist soon, if the chest pain returns longer than 15 min you should probably go to er and ask for a nuclear stress test to evaluate for blockage in your heart arteries. also your primary doc will prob want you on a blood pressure med

Taking your blood pressure?

when taking blood pressure at home (home monitoring), which is more accurate, the arm (brachial) or the wrist (radial)?

regardless if its digital or manual apparatus

I had a radial meter but my GP suggested I get a brachial meter to monitor my BP at home as they are more accurate. I picked up a digital one at Lloyds Chemists for under a tenner a couple of months ago.

My friend who is a nurse also said brachial gives a more accurate reading than the wrist types.

Blood pressure question plz help!?

My hubby is 34 years old and he has high blood pressure, the weird thing is that when he takes his blood pressure at home (with the home blood pressure monitor) his blood pressure is good it’s approximately about 125/78 and when he goes to the doc his blood pressure jumps to high numbers it’s approximately about 160/98, and he took his home monitor with him to the doc and his home monitor read the same results as the doctors monitor(so I don’t think the problem is with his home monitor), my question is why is it that when he goes to the doc his blood pressure is really high and when he takes it at home it’s good??

As machine 1 said it is the white coat syndrome; in this case, White Coat Hypertension.

The Blood Pressure Association states that white coat hypertension occurs when people experience elevated blood pressures in a medical setting. When they take their blood pressure at home, the systolic, the top number, is10 mm Hg lower than when taken in the examination room and the diastolic, the bottom number, is 5 mm Hg lower. There are various causes of white coat hypertension.

This can be due to Anxiety of Going to Doctor, Waiting for Examination, Early Indicator of Health Problems (The U.S. Army Medical Department states that, in many cases, white coat hypertension is not a benign situation. It could be an early indicator that patients are in the early stages of hypertension.), Smoking, caffeine or exercise.

Interestinglynly, a study published in BMJ, suggests the opposite. Refer:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/abstract/286/6373/1235

Blood Pressure?

I posted under woman’s health, but this was yahoo’s "recommended" category. But I added some stuff people asked from the other question.

I often take my blood pressure on the machines in groceries stores, I don’t know. I’ve just always done it since I was like 16, to see what it says. I’ve NEVER show even close to high blood pressure, but for the last 2 weeks its been pretty high (not in the little normal box). I know those things can be off so I don’t know if its something I should bother going to the doctor about. What would cause it to get so much higher? I haven’t changed my diet, except I eat more salad (a lot more) now. Cause I’m on a “diet”. But otherwise I still eat Special K or Cheerios for breakfast, salad, more salad and usually chicken or fish. I have been under a lot of stress lately, but I didn’t think that could really make your blood pressure get higher.
Additional Details
11 minutes ago

Well here is what I got on the machine.
Systolic/Diastolic/Heart Rate

Around what I was getting a month ago:
110/70/99

What I got this last week
130/77/107
125/73/98
134/80/92

What do you think? Should I worry, or just try to “fix” it myself. If you think its something I can do myself, what do you think I should try? If you have questions message me. Thanks!
3 minutes ago

I don’t have any history in my family for BP, the only thing that does run in my family is diabetes.
1 second ago

I drink diet coke & diet pepsi. Probably about 3 cans on a bad day. (What can I say, sometimes I need the extra energy boost).

Caffeine will raise your heart rate which may raise your BP. Your heart rate could be lower; it’s on the high side. If possible, you should sit at the machine for a few minutes before you take the BP so you’re more relaxed.

Do you exercise? That is as important as your diet when it comes to heart health. You need to be eating whole grains and fruits on your ‘diet’. Those will provide the vitamins and minerals that will keep your heart and muscles functioning best. Could you be slightly anemic? That will cause your heart rate to rise too.

You should try drinking more plain water to flush out your system. Watch your salt intake, which can increase blood pressure. If you’re eating more diet drinks and more salad dressing (even if it’s diet) you could be getting more salt.

I suggest you take the BP again a couple times. If the systolic is above 140 or the diastolic above 80, you might want to have a check up and see what the doc has to say.