My father-in-law was admitted to the ER last night for what was apparently a mild stroke; he has a good prognosis. The symptoms that he reported were feeling flushed, then losing control of one arm, and slurred speech.
While he was in the ER last night, his blood pressure was rated as at least 200-something (my husband recalls it as being 270-something) over ~150. It remained at that level long enough for them to medicate him for it. Apparently he vomited after being given this medication. From what I was told (through one of my sisters-in-law), he was given at least a couple other drugs to attempt to reduce his BP, and the vomiting/dry heaving continued for a few hours.
My FIL had a history of high blood pressure, but was not compliant in visiting a doctor often or in taking his meds regularly. The doctor that he would go see is out of the country currently, has his own practice, and the medical records are probably not accessible, so we don’t know what his usual BP is or if it had been checked regularly. My FIL has claimed in the past to have checked his BP at drugstores and said it was fine or only mildly elevated, nothing on this level. I can’t imagine his BP getting out of control to that point, but perhaps it did, since we have no records to show what it had been like.
I plan to ask the doctors about this, or have one of his children ask, but after searching the Mayo Clinic’s info site I’m still a bit confused.
- I know that high BP is a risk factor for stroke, but can people typically be walking around with a BP at that level? His family members were attributing it to the stress of having a stroke and being in the ER, even though it continued to be high for at least a couple hours while he was there. I’m wondering if it hadn’t been slowly rising for quite some time and finally caused a stroke.
- The family members also blamed the vomiting on a medication bad reaction/side effect. Could extremely high blood pressure cause that? I know it’s listed as one of the symptoms for a stroke, but I saw it listed together with a headache and usually as a symptom for a hemorrhagic stroke, which he didn’t have.