Tuesday, February 23, 2010

40% of February

Surprise, surprise: despite being on two different drugs to fix it, stopping prednisone, doing a much better job with my low-sodium diet, and exercising as much as my knee and fatigue will possibly permit, my blood pressure is still high. Awesome.

And, of course, the drug I was put on for my blood pressure last time is causing some unwanted side effect. ACE inhibitors? Made me cough. Hydrochlorothizaide? (Now there's a mouthful!) Made my calcium too high. So we've moved on to blood pressure medication #897. Ok, ok, really it's only been five or six different medications. But it feels like a million.

As has been true for the past nine months, I'll get some more blood tests done and meet with my doctor again in two weeks to see how my blood pressure is doing. Honestly? I'm starting to get pretty discouraged about this whole blood pressure thing, seeing as I'm doing everything in my power to fix it and it doesn't seem to be helping at all.

But, I also booked a follow-up appointment with the nutritionist today, so maybe that will help. I also (beware: TMI) booked my annual exam at the Women's Clinic. They had a cancellation this Friday so I took it, just to get it over with. Doctors appointments 4 out of 5 days this week? Don't mind if I do! [Insert sarcasm here.]

Of course, this brings my total number of medical appointments for this month to ELEVEN. Which means I've been to the doctor on almost 40% of the days in February. I should totally get a raise.

4 comments:

~kelly marie~ said...

All, I can say is hugs! Big time hugs!

Oh and my blood pressure is way too low. Think we can do some kind of trade thing? I think that's possible, right? ;)

Helen said...

I went through a similarly long and frustrating process to get my blood pressure under control.

I hope this new medication helps and doesn't have any nasty side effects.

Helen said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
~Mariah~ said...

KELLY: Some kind of trade sounds awesome. ~;o)

HELEN: It's the long part that's getting to me - I feel like I've been fighting with it FOREVER. But I'm glad to know it can be done. Thanks. ~;o)