You’ve probably have gotten the lecture already, but it’s the SMOKING that does the major damage. The good-livin’ lifestyle simply cannot cancel out the negative effects of cigarettes, period.
Nicotine is a major vasoconstrictor, and that can only have a negative effect on your blood pressure. Even if you are down to one cigarette a day, throw that last one away. All the effort you are putting into your recovery is bogged down with tobacco, so it’s time to kiss it goodbye.
~VOW
I know, I know, and I am working on it truly. :o
I expect within 10 days to be completely done. (I’d really, really, like to get through it without the Champix,) and I think it’s within my reach.
I’m currently at the, light it, take 3 puffs, scold myself righteously, and snuff it out, phase. I know I can do it. I know I have to do it. I know I *will *do it.
My best friend, with whom I did most of my smoking actually, has quit already. That’s a major trigger gone, this should be much easier than any of my previous attempts, as a result. Plus there’s my husband hounding me. But I’m a long time smoker and addiction isn’t easy. My physician reminded me that nicotine is worst than heroine, according to some study. Not really what I needed to hear, but, still it’s got to be done.
Thanks, I know you’re way more informed about such things than I, and I will take your chastising to heart, I swear!
Elbows, I’ve buried people dear to me because of smoking.
~VOW
I hear you, honestly, but I’m doing my best, truly. (I am ashamed to say, I have too! Buried people I love due to smoking!)
My ‘just quit friend’ is coming tonight, so rest assured I’ll be getting a boat load of ‘what the hell’, I promise, I’m getting there, slowly. I could be done in less than a week, with luck.
I am also ashamed to admit that, I have quit several times before, notably twice, each time for a year! Yes, I know, I’m an idiot. No one is more aware than me, I promise.
Can I ask you a question?
What’s the importance of the bottom number (BP)? I know 140/80 is the target, and with the meds I’m often under 140, but sometimes the 80 is closer to 90-95. Everyone seemed to be all about the top number, so far, so I’m wondering about the bottom one. I’m inching up to needing another hit of the diuretic, half a dose of what I took last time, that laid me out again.
I’d love to understand the bottom number a little better, but keep it simple, I’m not a medico, after all!
And thank you so much for all your input, it has been very helpful and is not falling on deaf ears! I am a compliant girl by nature. I’ll get there. Soon.
The top number is the highest pressure of the blood in the arteries when that first “burst” of blood exits the heart as it pumps. That is when the blood plumbing is under the most stress.
The bottom number is the lowest pressure of the blood in the arteries RIGHT BEFORE that “burst” of blood exits the heart. That is when the plumbing is under the least amount of stress.
That is why the top number is ALWAYS higher than the bottom number.
And an astronomically-high top number (like your doozy!) always makes people’s jaws drop and they say “OHMYGOD!” A stroke or heart attack or busted aneurysm (a not-nice thing) results from big top numbers.
A high bottom number means your blood plumbing isn’t getting much rest at all. That means things get worn out faster.
When you’ve got a doctor passing out pills to lower your BP, one concern is to make sure it doesn’t drop REALLY fast. If you’ve got something that has been under high pressure for a long time, and you suddenly remove a lot of the pressure, stuff doesn’t work too well.
Think of blowing up a balloon, and letting it go, to fly around the room in a crazy pattern.
Not only are the big, well-known blood vessels affected by high blood pressure (like the brain or the heart), but the really teeny, tiny blood vessels are sensitive to blood pressure. A place where you’ve got a lot of those teeny, tiny blood vessels is in the kidney. The walls of those blood vessels have to necessarily thin, because the blood is trying to remove wastes and also balance the amount of salt and other chemicals in your body. That balance is necessary to make the heart beat.
Every day you lower your intake of nicotine, you are helping your body. Acknowledge the good things you are doing, and don’t beat yourself up over the bad.
Talk to your doctor about your efforts to quit. Instead of CHANTIX, there are some antidepressants which can reduce or eliminate the craving. One that I know of is WELLBUTRIN.
~VOW
(PS: I’m not a medico, either. I just read a lot!)
Can’t thank you enough for all that information, truly. I really, really appreciate it. I’ve been told to watch for this number or that, with only minimal real understanding of what exactly is being measured. Your explanation was just right. I had tried researching it on line and soon found myself in a little too deep, and just getting confused. And probably still a little concussed too.
It is hard to get a handle on all of it at once; medications changing, some as needed, tracking sodium, changing your diet, tracking your blood pressure, wondering why you feel so crap. But I seem to have cleared the good days, bad days.
Things are really getting better each day, though I am still easily tired. I am careful to take a short rest after any activity, which seems to be the way to go. I haven’t used a icepack in days, and I’ve gone from 8 Tylenol to 3 pretty easily and swiftly. Thinking of it, I don’t think I’ve taken more than 1/2 a Gravol in 2 or three days either. Or the Statex either. And I worked today, only 4 hrs, (and I was ready to lie down, for a half hour, as soon as I came through the door), but it’s all a step forward. And that makes me very happy. I can see my old life again, it’s just going to take some time to get there.
Not to say there isn’t still a lot of pills to swallow! I was directed to take Magnesium, Potassium, and B12 every day, and already take 3 calcium. No matter how you look at it, getting older comes with challenges. But I figure, no matter what, it’s better than the alternative! And there is no way around the hard facts, that I am one lucky creature!
Thanks again, keep reading. I read tons but not that stuff!
The minerals: sodium, potassium, calcium, and magnesium dissolve in the body and become IONS. Fancy word, but that means little individual atoms with an electric charge.
Number one is that the Universe absolutely requires balance, so all the little positives must equal all the little negatives.
Think of the positive and the negatives going hand in hand together.
And in the body, the nerves communicate with the muscles using these ions. If you don’t have enough potassium in the body, your heart doesn’t get the message to beat!
This is why the kidneys are so vital! Those teeny tiny blood vessels in the kidneys with the very thin blood vessel walls keep the body in balance when it comes to the positive and negative minerals. Our diets are far, far too high in sodium, and the kidneys have to work extra hard to remove that sodium. The process requires a LOT of water, because the sodium holds onto water.
Sodium attracting the extra water ends up in the blood, which makes the heart work harder, and thereby increasing the blood pressure to move that extra liquid.
And to convince the sodium to pack up and go, the kidneys use potassium. So our potassium can become depleted when we eat too much sodium.
The kidneys get hit with a triple slam. They are working really hard to get rid of the excess sodium, trying to keep enough potassium in the body so it functions correctly, and then the high blood pressure is pounding away on the delicate blood vessels!
Medical stuff has always been a kind of hobby of mine!
~VOW
You know, the BP meds can make you dragged out … I was complaining about mine making me have nap attacks within half an hour of taking them, then I found out that the off label use for clonidine is as a sleep aid :smack:
[and one pill would be phenomenal, it took my cardiologist almost 5 months to get me sorted out and I take 4 different meds each day, not just if my bp goes up. If I had the money I would have him write them so I could go to a compounding pharmacy and just have each med time’s pills popped into a single capsule.:(]
Just popping by to offer more support, elbows, both in your recovery and to wish you luck with the smoking thing.
-D/a
I would have bet money that a b.p. of 207/186 would leave you looking like Arnold Schwarzenegger on the surface of Mars.
Well, 210/190 got me admitted to Yale-New Haven instead of the operation I was there for, and I didn’t stroke out or suffer anything more than adding 3 more meds to my BP meds 
Well, also an echocardiogram, a few EKGs and some random ultrasounds. And finally after just over 2 years a drug based stress test, which I am still waiting for the results of.
I don’t really know what this means? It’s a reference I’m unaware of. Big and burly? Superstrong and intimidating?
Mostly it left me, with a wicked headache for weeks, weak, feeble and slow to recover. What symptoms I still have, now that the meds are tweaked, are more bad/severe concussion like. It isn’t just physical activity that tires me easily, too much stimulation can do the same thing. Some times I just need quiet time and stillness.
But I can see the light at the end of the tunnel, at last. I might not be riding my bike any time soon, but I’ll get there assuredly. I am resigning myself to a season of lazy gardening, and only the simplest home repair projects. Everything else, will simply have to wait till next summer. That’s just how it is!
Elbows … IANAD but I think it’s possible you may have had a small stroke.
Strokes don’t always show up on CT scans, for one thing. When my mom had her first “TIA,” the ER staff kept telling us the CT scan was normal and blowing us off, suggesting maybe it was psychological, etc. Meanwhile I’m standing there watching one side of her face fall, her speech is slurred, she’s dazed, etc.
Those can be symptoms of a TIA, of course. However after her “TIA,” she slept pretty much nonstop for about a month. People who have had TIA’s – don’t do that.
Mom had 4 “TIAs” before dying in her sleep - fairly certain it was a stroke that killed her. Looking back I think what they were calling TIA’s were small strokes foretelling The Big One™.
A TIA is a precursor to a stroke and should never be taken lightly.
elbows, once again, I’m late to the gathering. You said you had two CT scans, were either of them of your abdomen? Has your doctor mentioned Pheochromocytoma? It is a rare adrenal tumor that causes sudden, extreme, episodic hypertension.
I can’t remember, are you outside the US? The drug names you’ve given are not common in the US, but I’m used to generic names anyway. There are so many brand names for the same drug, I always have to look them up. :smack:
The B/P drug is an alpha blocker, watch for swelling in your ankles. The diuretic won’t, necessarily, take care of that. The other drug is just for nausea, but, you knew that.
I’m glad you’re feeling better, but pleeease, keep trying to quit smoking!. We love you and want you here for a long, long time.
Update:
I am so much better now, it is quite remarkable. No ice packs, no gravol, not much Tylenol. Back to working, (4 hr shifts, but it still counts!), life is pretty sweet. I do get tired, and I am still somewhat weather effected, headachy etc, but nothing too serious!
The hypertension specialist, speaking to me at length, about the, ‘effects of a severe concussion’, has brought into focus for me, things that had me bewildered, before. It suddenly makes a lot more sense. When I was in hospital I was convinced I had a bad heachache, was naseous, could barely stand or move, because they were pumping so many pills and meds into me. I’m not a big person, 4000mg of Tylenol, (plus morphine sometimes), everyday, seemed outrageous to me, on top of everything else!
When, in fact, what I was feeling was from the, ‘concussion like effect’, from the high numbers. They were pumping me full of things to treat potentially damaging effects to liver, kidneys, heart, etc.
I was having a lots of tests and scans, but they always came up clear, there was nothing to tell. And they aren’t really about to say, ‘your organs are fine’, when anything can still manifest in the next 12-48hrs. The unlikely intersection of my husband, and the on site Dr, over a holiday weekend, likely also played a part. And, of course, they’d have, no doubt been aware that I was somewhat addled. I didn’t really see it, at the time, but I see it quite clearly now.
When I returned home and felt just awful, if I moved around at all, ice pack on brain stem, nasea, I still blamed on the monstrous amount of drugs I felt swimming in. But I can see, more clearly now, that these are, in fact, the exact symptoms of severe concussion. The Tylenol (+Statex) were for the wicked headache they knew I would have for a while. The drugs did need to be adjusted, but I think now it might just have been my brain, more than the drugs!
Which would also explain why I was so very confused, I felt addled but didn’t really connect the dots, y’know? Even, about three weeks in, when I was able to sit up for a couple of hours, when I got on line and started to do research to figure out what the hell had happened, even then, I was having real problems understanding medical material, for instance. I’d have to get off line, my brain would almost throb, and I’d just be more confused. I never even thought - concussion!
The specialist was directing my care from wherever he spent Easter weekend, with computer access to all of my scans. He was directing what was being pumped into me pretty tightly, and they were drawing blood almost constantly. When I saw my physician, a week out of the hospital, though I was a hot mess at the time, she told me, on the upside, every inch of me had been thoroughly scanned, a couple of times, and everything was clear, no surprises, good news!
But once my brain started to calm down, things got a lot better pretty quickly. I still get tired, but my brain is not addled. I can, once again, do sudoku and crosswords! I’m not back to full speed yet, but I am clearly getting better every day. Which pleases me very, very much. I’m not quite up to riding my bike, or spending an entire day gardening, but I’m not far from there, I believe.
Anyway, thanks so much for listening and all of your help, in feeling my way through it. This board was extremely helpful to me at a very confusing and difficult time. Thanks again.
I almost forgot (maybe I am still addled?:D) Two days, no cigarettes!