It's all downhill from here

[johnridley]

My blood pressure has been borderline for several years, even with 90 minutes of cardio a day. Since stopping the daily bike rides back in October, I got a home monitor on the advice of my doctor, and it's been creeping up as I expected it to, but yesterday for the 2nd time it spiked up enough to raise a real alarm, so I decided "now" rather than "maybe after the holidays."

Today the doctor put me on a base level drug. This is the first time in my life I've had a drug that I will have to take every day forever (or one of its cousins). It was inevitable given my family history (my mom's BP is frightening), and blood pressure control meds at the level I'm likely to need for quite a while to come are cheap and straightforward, so I'm not all that bummed really. Beats destroying my kidneys.

Oh yeah, and I just ordered my first pair of bifocals.

Pass the Geritol.

Comments

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

You're 46, John. Welcome to middle-age. :-)

[madtechie2718.livejournal.com]

Out of interest, what do they call borderline and spike in the US?

My BP cam edown a big chunk after IO lost weight, but not down to the optimum 120/60 or something.

Good luck with the bifocals, I tried varifocals but they drove me mad. I either use distance glasses paired with some limited vari's - ie read a book to view a monitor range (I can love with the optical oddities caused by my severe astigmatism).

Or, I just use distance glasses only - then squint, curse and swear a lot.

Wait until you reach another 12 years like me - then maybe you'll have cause to grouse...

On a not-terribly-related topic, I've decided definitely not to have a PSA test - at all - unless frank symptoms develop.

It doesn't run in my family and the more papers I read, the more convinced I become that is a bad plan due to a large number of false positives. Are they a standard test in the US?

[qnofhrt.livejournal.com]

The ideal bp is supposedly less than 120/70. IIRC the diastolic going up is actually more worrisome than the systolic.

Out of curiosity, which base level drug did they put you on? I'm betting on hydrochlorothiazide or lisinopril.

My dad had high bp but mom had chronically low bp. Like Dermot, my bp was creeping up when I was heavier and I've seen it go down steadily with the weight loss and exercise. I haven't been on a bike regularly for over a month but yesterday my bp was 111/65.