blood pressure reading

[Christina L]

Hi all,

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

I am in cardiac rehab and yesterday my blood pressure was running around 118/85 or something like that. The lower number (systolic ? diastolic?) seems high and the nurse said it was. What does this mean? She then said it was "normal" and not to worry about it, but I know from past blood pressures that the lower number should probably be in the 70s or 60s with the top number being that low.

The nurse said the blood pressure numbers show "how" your heart is working. So what is my heart doing?

My heart rate is coming down albeit slowly - into the high 70s and last night at rest was in the 70s and even into the high 60s. As soon as I get up to do something, though, the heart rate goes right up into the 80s/sometimes 90s.

I am having a lot of PACs which are a nuisance, but I can't complain as the a-fib has not reared its head again. Do most people have PACs after heart surgery and do they eventually go away. I have talked with some on the board who say the PACs slowly trickle down to nothing. True?

Help?

Thanks.

Christina L.

 

[Ross]

120/80 used to be the considered norm, now they've changed it to 120/70. Regardless, your normal or at least you were until you met me!

 

[Nancy]

Hi Christina-

Your blood-pressure will rise anyway if you have been doing some activity. So will your heart rate. Then it should come back down when your system settles down. Yesterday, after being on the treadmill, Joe's HR was 118, but it went back down after a while.

I remember systolic versus diastolic--diastolic means the lower number so I remember "d" for "down".

Happy New year!

 

[Marge]

Over the last month, since I started a program to monitor my BP and heart rate daily, my systolic BP has been as low as 94 and has gone up as high as 133. The distolic has been as low as 54 and as high as 77.

Usually the systolic is somewhere in the 120's and the diastolic in the 60's-70's. It varies quite a lot from day to day -- as well as from time to time during the day.

I have to phone in my BP and HR readings every day (along with info about weight gain, edema, and other symptoms) to a "Heart Failure Management Program" that is run by my HMO (Kaiser) because of the medication I'm on -- carvedilol (Coreg), a beta blocker. This is part of titrating the dosage up to the optimal level, 25 mg. 2X a day, which I just reached last Monday.

The readings tend to be at their lowest shortly after I take the beta blocker. This makes sense--the medication is supposed to "lower" my heart's activity. But otherwise the variations don't seem to be related to any cause. I've tried to test that--done readings on successive days after the exact same activity. Even when I do that, the variations occur.

However, the nurse who oversees the program (under my cardiologist's direction) says that my readings, and the variations, are "perfectly normal."

 

[Harpoon]

Your BP generally does go up during exercise, even light work like walking or doing the dishes.

What's important is how long that elevated rate stays there after you've stopped doing whatever it was you were doing.

Everyone else posted "norms" so I guess I don't need to. =)


A few years ago (when my "story" started) I had an assignment to shoot a health fair being presented by the local hospital for senior citizens. There was one station that offered free blood pressure screenings and I asked to take a few photos (a photo of a urse checking someone's blood pressure is always a good shot for a medical story, action and "drama" and all that...) The nurse aid sure, but that i'd have to have my BP checked after I took my shots.

It was 120/80 and she said that was very good, my response was that it ought to be since i was on lisinopril and had no history of high blood pressure.

Ok, so I'm a bit of a smart ass.....

 

[ALCapshaw2]

Relax Christina, your numbers do NOT sound alarming.

You didn't mention WHEN the nurse took those numbers.
When I was in Cardiac Rehab, a nurse took BP numbers BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER exercise. As everyone has said, BP should rise during exercise and gradually come down after exercise.

You may also see day to day variations, especially this early after your surgery. Hopefully the trend will be downward as you recover and recondition with exercise. Like everything else about OHS recovery, this takes time.

Several things can cause PAC's to come and go such as an electrolyte imbalance. Ask your doctor to check your Magnesium and Potassium Levels if he isn't already doing so. I've long suspected dehydration or even 'under' hydration as a factor. My Rehab Nurses urged everyone to 'sip water' between exercises. Beta Blockers 'may' also help to control them. And again, they tend to diminish with time. I suspect your 'Road to Recovery' will smooth out in the next several weeks.

You already seem and sound a LOT better than just a few weeks ago Christine. You're headed in the right direction, just Keep On Keepin' On.

Best wishes for the New Year,

'AL'

 

[Christina L]

Hi All,

Thanks for your responses to my questions about blood pressure. As for me being normal until I met you, Ross, you didn't know me before I met you - my sisters would not call me "normal." Hee!

FYI - the blood pressure was taken at rest AFTER exercise and didn't change much from before the exercise. However, they have kept me on a very light exercise regimen at cardiac rehab - only 15 minutes at 1.5 mph and today at rehab, they are going to bump me up in mph and also have me go for 30 minutes.

At home, I have been exercising on my treadmill for 30 minutes at 1.5 mph. I am a very tentative, cautious person, and I "personally" feel that I want my tissues to heal up first (kind of like Bonnie's view on things) before I start to "really" exercise.

The nurse who took the blood pressure at rehab seemed a bit dumfounded by the reading but I told her that I don't even get winded when I am exercising, so maybe there is no change in the BP because I am not working hard enough. Hence, today they are going to start to work me a little more.

My blood pressure was higher than that a few weeks back - 130s/80s, but it is coming down, as is my heart rate.

Again, thanks for your help!

Christina L.

 

[Harpoon]

I miss the rowing machine at cardiac rehab.....



That was a lot of fun and on more than one occassion I got yelled at by the nurses because my heart rate was higher than they wanted it....

I liked that thing, better than the treadmill. Wish I had one of my own.

I don't quite remember what my speeds were usually like, I think closer ro 4 or 5 mph... I would go for 10 minutes usually...

 

[medtronic of borg]

bp

bp

The higher the "lower" number is the more of a concern for most heart pts. Because that number represents the presure when the vascular system is at rest. Inbetween heart beats. If it is high the heart is under pressure too. Some of us aready have enlargened hearts or weak vessels, leading to ruptured anurisms,strokes, and such that can lead to death.

Med

 

[csutherland]

We've been monitoring Jerry's BP for almost a month, though with the holidays and my having a bad bout of flu we haven't been very systematic with it.

A couple of times in different doctor's offices in Nov. his BP was pretty high. Once 180/100 or something like that. They always mention "white coat syndrome", which Jerry completely discounts. He's been to so many doctors over the past 3 yrs that white coats do not affect him! When he had his annual cardio visit in early Dec. he didn't act overly concerned, saying that BP is "not a function of the heart, but of the kidneys". He advised us to get a home testing machine and keep track of it, then let his primary care physician know the numbers. The highest it has been was 157/102 at 7:00 am. The lower number is usually in the high 80's to high 90's. The lowest was 113/74. The cardio said he'd like it to stay under 140/90.

It's a little confusing to me that BP is not a function of the heart. When a murmur was first noticed, his BP had a span of 100 points between the systolic & diastolic. He was told by someone in the medical field that that huge difference in itself indicated valve problems.

We'll watch it a little longer and notify the doctor if it remains high. He's been on Altace & Atenolol since surgery 2 years ago.