worrisome developments w/r/t hypertension

[cold before sunrise]

especially not today.

your !

[alexandra]

ANDREW CALL YOUR DOCTOR.

MAKE SURE HE GOT THE MESSAGE.

 

[Andrew_TSKS]

his office called back yesterday to tell me to call and make an appointment.

i'm totally gonna have to call my parents to get money to pay for one, but they won't mind sending me money for medical stuff, so it's all good.

[alexandra]

YAY!





good jorb!

[jebreject]

andrew =  8)

[RavingLunatic]

I'm going to contradict everyone here and say that I don't think a 40-45 RHR is that big of a deal. I'm out of shape now, so mine's not that low at the moment, but I've taken mine at under 40 before. It's largely genetic. There is a danger that if you have a low heart rate and you drink something really cold and get a brain freeze, it can give you a seizure. That happened to my dad once. It wasn't anything serious though.

[jebreject]

Call me old school, but to me, a seizure is always serious.

[andronicus]

Call me old school, but to me, a seizure is always serious.

What are you, some kind of pussy?  Personally, I self-induce a seizure every tuesday.  It's good for the kidneys.

[alexandra]

what concerns me most is the amount of medication andrew is taking 300mg of lopressor is excessive. and i think he may need to have his meds changed asap.

[RavingLunatic]

what concerns me most is the amount of medication andrew is taking 300mg of lopressor is excessive. and i think he may need to have his meds changed asap.

Yeah, that could be true. The damn drug companies have everyone and every doctor convinced we all need medicine to survive. The fact that medical schools are largely funded by drug companies doesn't help matters, nor does the bribes their representatives lavish doctors with. OK, I'm gonna stop before I derail the thread.

I was just saying that a low RHR by itself is not a cause of worry. And I just mentioned the seizure thing to warn Andrew not to drink cold stuff too fast. It's not like it's an everyday occurrence for people with low RHRs. For a long time my RHR was below 40. If I get in good shape in the next month it'll be there again. I've never had any problems, and I don't think my situation is in any way peculiar.

[Andrew_TSKS]

what concerns me most is the amount of medication andrew is taking 300mg of lopressor is excessive. and i think he may need to have his meds changed asap.

Yeah, that could be true. The damn drug companies have everyone and every doctor convinced we all need medicine to survive. The fact that medical schools are largely funded by drug companies doesn't help matters, nor does the bribes their representatives lavish doctors with. OK, I'm gonna stop before I derail the thread.

i agree with you, but in case you don't know, my blood pressure was 220/135 when i went to see the doctor for the first time about this in dec. 2004. sometimes medication is unnecessary, and honestly, i think when the doc upped me to 300 mg of lopressor, he was probably doing it unnecessarily. i'm pretty sure the fact that i'm on clonidine, which other people with hypertension have told me causes one's bp to go up and down during the course of the day since a 12 hour dose doesn't actually last 12 hours, is the real issue here. i figure if i stay on the medicine i'm on now and start exercising more (which i am admittedly terrible about, since exercise that isn't necessary to my going about my day seems to me to be a terrible waste of time no matter what the longterm benefits are), i could probably get my bp down some anyway. BUT, i'm sure i need some medicine, because my bp was WAY too high before. i'm pretty sure my spending my 20s straight edge is the only reason i'm alive/healthy today.

I was just saying that a low RHR by itself is not a cause of worry. And I just mentioned the seizure thing to warn Andrew not to drink cold stuff too fast. It's not like it's an everyday occurrence for people with low RHRs. For a long time my RHR was below 40. If I get in good shape in the next month it'll be there again. I've never had any problems, and I don't think my situation is in any way peculiar.

i think to some extent i may have a genetic history of this from my father's side (ironic, as i have hypertension due to genetics on my mother's side), and i actually wasn't worried about it when my pulse was around 50 or so, even though that's supposed to be a bit low. my pulse has been that low in the past at times when i wasn't on any sort of medication. so what you're saying makes sense to me and makes me feel a little better. however, when i see my pulse suddenly dropping 10 bpm and getting way lower than i've ever seen it before, that's worrisome; you can't deny that.

[alexandra]

clonidine 0.2mg?

a common combination for the two is with 50mg of lopressor twice a day. know that medications change by the person and depend on what else your taking etc. but that combo is widely used.

another thing that concerns me is what your heart rate gets to while you're asleep.

andrew, even if you just start jogging a block a day, that'll help.

[Andrew_TSKS]

i'm taking .1 of clonidine during the day, then .2 at night. so i guess .3 per day, total. i was on 50 mg of lopressor twice a day at first, but the doctor upped my dosage twice after that, and now i'm back to 100 mg twice a day after the 300 mg per day high.

as for the exercise, i really try to ride my bike to work as much as possible, but it's SO COLD right now that i can't make myself do it more than once or twice a week. that will change in a month or so.

and i mean, do you really think small amounts of exercise do anything? because like, no matter how much i ever do, someone finds a reason why it's not enough to have any real effect. when i was riding a bike 10 miles each way to go to work, a total of 80 miles a week (not counting any riding i did to anywhere other than work), a friend of mine told me that only riding 10 miles at a time wasn't enough to have any effect on how in shape i was. granted, he's the type who goes on 75 mile bike rides for fun, but that's what he said.

[FreddyKnuckles]

nah, gettin' your blood a pumpin' is grrreat!  Riding your bike to work everyday won't get you in great shape, but its still really good for you.  He was probably just trying to encourage you in his way to do more, not be complacent.

right now I play basketball once a week and run 2 miles once a week.  And that really isn't enough to get me in shape, but its better than nothing, and I feel healthier since I've started doing it.

[alexandra]

i'm taking .1 of clonidine during the day, then .2 at night. so i guess .3 per day, total. i was on 50 mg of lopressor twice a day at first, but the doctor upped my dosage twice after that, and now i'm back to 100 mg twice a day after the 300 mg per day high.

as for the exercise, i really try to ride my bike to work as much as possible, but it's SO COLD right now that i can't make myself do it more than once or twice a week. that will change in a month or so.

and i mean, do you really think small amounts of exercise do anything? because like, no matter how much i ever do, someone finds a reason why it's not enough to have any real effect. when i was riding a bike 10 miles each way to go to work, a total of 80 miles a week (not counting any riding i did to anywhere other than work), a friend of mine told me that only riding 10 miles at a time wasn't enough to have any effect on how in shape i was. granted, he's the type who goes on 75 mile bike rides for fun, but that's what he said.

dude, andrew, any exercise is good. 15 minutes of constant exercise a day is a great place to start. i think it's best not to worry about what people think, it's about how you feel. a quick mile jog at 4am wakes me up and makes me feel great for the entire day. who cares if someone else thinks "burning the right calories" or "not enough to change anything". going from doing nothing, to doing something, is enough for awhile. and plus you'll feel better about doing something, no matter how small for your body. it does a shit load for you.

you might want to talk to him about the clonidine amount too.

[Andrew_TSKS]

hey, thanks for the encouragement, freddy and alex. i need this kind of stuff in my life, instead of the kind of shit i get from my parents and some of my friends (who admittedly mean well).

as for the clonidine, he wanted me taking .2 during the day, too, but the stuff knocks me out so bad i insisted on only .1 during the day. so i set the amount there.