A rough few days


hammerforged

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Friday about 6:00 pm, I came in from the shop to find my wife in the bathroom very incoherent and eyes so dilated all you could see were her pupils. She could not answer even the simplest of questions, daughter's names, grandchildren's names, etc. I called 911 and got an ambulance to the house by the time I got off of the phone with 911 it was as if nothing had happened at all. First responders arrived on scene and asked her questions - social security number, date, president's name, etc. no problems. Took her to hospital anyway and she had another spell within 10 minutes of arriving in the emergency room, as the spell was taking place they took er blood pressure and it was 55/13, immediately started her on IV fluids with potassium. She had a total of 5 more spells Friday night into Saturday morning with each one getting less and less in endurance and no disorientation. Long story short it appears that her blood pressure medication had a bad interaction with an antibiotic she was on for bronchitis and she became very dehydrated. Although there were no outward signs of any dehydration, no fever, normal bodily functions, normal appetite, etc. She worked Friday and said until she went to the bathroom she felt fine but while sitting there she became very dizzy and disoriented. We are now home from the hospital and she will meet with our family doctor tomorrow at 4:00 pm. My wife is fanatical about maintaining a check on her blood pressure, she even keeps a daily log. She checks her pressure each morning before she takes her medication, this morning it was 106/72, she averages 114/74 each morning before taking her medication. My question for her doctor tomorrow is, if these are her readings before she takes the medication then why should she be taking the medication in the first place? There is a history of hypertension in her family and I think at one time her pressure was 140/87 for a few weeks back when our oldest daughter and we were dealing with all of the medical issues with our grandson and that is when she was put on the blood pressure medication. Ruth, I would really welcome your input on this. Any way, I just really wanted to say Thank You for allowing me a place to vent, to say I was scared witless at the time would be a complete understatement.

Edited by hammerforged
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Wow, very scary...very. I would say her meds need to be cut back. Esp. if she is averaging those types of blood pressures. BP meds. can easily be adjusted. does she take her BP meds in the AM? I know typically with hypertension, BP will drop after the meds are taken, but can go up later on, but if she is staying that low...her Dr. needs to do some re-adjustment of her meds if not take her off some of them. If he doesn't, I'd get a second opinion because anyone who is getting that low where I work, the meds get re-adjusted. I see where you said her BP is each morning before she takes it...that low she shouldn't be taking it if at all very little. If she was dehydrated, that can drop BP and then it's liek the meds are "concentrated" in the blood stream, in simple terms, but it sounds like the Dr. needs to take her some meds or really lower the dose. 114/74 is a perfectly fine BP....even if she was in the 120s or so, that's fine to! Let me know what the Dr. does.

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Scary indeed Ross. Sorry to hear it.

Doctors are a good thing, however, they are typically quick to throw meds at everything. I had high blood pressure once (white coat syndrome) and it was recorded in my chart. Several years later they still had me down as hypertensive until I had my doctor take it out of my chart. I do not have high blood pressure....

I would take a firm look into this. Get her back to square with her health and dehydration issues and then track the BP to see if she really needs to be on the meds.

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Ross, glad to hear she got thru the scary part , my best wishes that the find the right path for her future and long term health.

My wife is diabetic, and about 3AM one night over a decade ago while in bed with our first newborn a couple feet away in a crib, she became cold , clamy and completely stiff as a board, and like a statue , it scared me to death thinking that she.....well anyway, I had a heck of a time getting her downstairs and into the truck, then of course I had to go back in the house for lil John and get him ready for travel...we got to the ER and they could not straighten her out to even get her in a wheel chair and had to bring out a gurny...her sugar was at 32!!, She does an outstanding job at sugar control something just happened that night and it was the scariest night of my life holding out little baby and watching her go thru all of that. We now have 3 kids and she continues to control the diabetes well...might want to keep an eye on that sugar as well.

My long way of saying I have felt that scare you had and feel for you going thru something similar, your wife sounds like mine in how closely she watches her internal health. My guess is they will outlive both of us. God Bless and my thoughts are with you and Ruth, praying for a long and happy life together for you guys. Listen to the doctors but don't be afriad to make them support what they want to do.

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Hope they get it figured out and all straightened out. Real good question there on that med Ross, would hope they don't have her taking a bp med that is not necessary. Will ask my wife to take a look at your thread here this evening after she gets home to see if she might have any insight. She may be able to answer some questions.

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I agree with Ruth. Her blood pressure meds are doing exactly what they are intended to do. However, when you have a normal to low pressure to start with, you are going to get light headed and possibly go unresponsive. If your wife is diligent in measuring her own pressures, she has important information her doctor needs to know. She needs to be able to contribute in her own treatment course. Doctors look at test results and trends to base their treatment on. Never be afraid to question your doctor's treatment regimen.

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We had a lady at Church who did exactly the same thing...she was on Beta Blockers for Blood Pressure. She only had one episode but was unresponsive for a few minutes and scared her husband to death.

They changed her meds and she feels great now, no recurrence.

Hope that she is feeling better....get those meds checked.

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Prayers on the way Ross, hope she recovers and things get straightened out!

We just had a scare with mom a couple weeks ago and she's still stabilizing. Except it was the other way around. Her blood pressure was 210/109 at one point. She's been on medication since and checks her BP many times a day. She's back down to 130s over 80s. Going for testing tomorrow for kidneys I think.

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