Of course, I spent the 1st 3 hours in the waiting room.
I take blood pressure medication and it has worked fine for the last 3 years. For some unknown reason, my blood pressure skyrocketed tonight and the medication seemed to have no effect.
I took a pill around 7 pm and bp was something like 155/90. I checked it again an hour later and it had gone up instead of down. Rechecked at 10 and up some more. Took another pill. Up even more at 11 and more at 12. Took 1 more pill and headed for emergency room. (dr said I could take up to 8 a day and I took 7)
Last reading before I left was 220/140. I have never had anything near that before. I had no other symptoms, so decided to drive myself. Threw shaving kit and a couple of other things in overnight bag and hit the road. I had the phone ready in case I had a heart attack or stroke. Had a hard time finding the hospital as it was pouring, foggy, and dark as heck. I've never driven there at night so daytime landmarks weren't much help.
They checked BP at the hospital about 45 minutes after leaving the house. The systolic had dropped about 10 points. A little bit of good news. At least it wasn't still going up.
After 2 hours of waiting, I asked the nurse if she would measure bp again. She did and it had dropped some more to about 177/110. I'm going to live!
At 3 hours I finally got into an emergency room. I took another pill, since I usually take them at about 3 hour intervals. I saw 2 different docs (I think the 1st was new). Both of them questioned the bp medication I was taking and recommended i change to something else.
New doc gave me another bp pill about 4 am.
At 5 am, bp was down to 150/98. They gave me another pill and sent me home. Now I'm too amped up to sleep.
They did more than just give me 2 pills. They did an ekg when I first got there which I assumed showed my heart was not in distress as they left me in the waiting room for the next 3 hours.
After I was in the room, they monitored my heart for an hour and the doctor checked my heart and lungs. I have a slight murmur which I was aware of.
So now I have a new prescription and no idea whatsoever as to what caused my bp to spike.
I take blood pressure medication and it has worked fine for the last 3 years. For some unknown reason, my blood pressure skyrocketed tonight and the medication seemed to have no effect.
I took a pill around 7 pm and bp was something like 155/90. I checked it again an hour later and it had gone up instead of down. Rechecked at 10 and up some more. Took another pill. Up even more at 11 and more at 12. Took 1 more pill and headed for emergency room. (dr said I could take up to 8 a day and I took 7)
Last reading before I left was 220/140. I have never had anything near that before. I had no other symptoms, so decided to drive myself. Threw shaving kit and a couple of other things in overnight bag and hit the road. I had the phone ready in case I had a heart attack or stroke. Had a hard time finding the hospital as it was pouring, foggy, and dark as heck. I've never driven there at night so daytime landmarks weren't much help.
They checked BP at the hospital about 45 minutes after leaving the house. The systolic had dropped about 10 points. A little bit of good news. At least it wasn't still going up.
After 2 hours of waiting, I asked the nurse if she would measure bp again. She did and it had dropped some more to about 177/110. I'm going to live!
At 3 hours I finally got into an emergency room. I took another pill, since I usually take them at about 3 hour intervals. I saw 2 different docs (I think the 1st was new). Both of them questioned the bp medication I was taking and recommended i change to something else.
New doc gave me another bp pill about 4 am.
At 5 am, bp was down to 150/98. They gave me another pill and sent me home. Now I'm too amped up to sleep.
They did more than just give me 2 pills. They did an ekg when I first got there which I assumed showed my heart was not in distress as they left me in the waiting room for the next 3 hours.
After I was in the room, they monitored my heart for an hour and the doctor checked my heart and lungs. I have a slight murmur which I was aware of.
So now I have a new prescription and no idea whatsoever as to what caused my bp to spike.
