For close to a year, we've been trying to get my mom's blood pressure spikes under control.The doctors basically keep increasing her meds which I think needs to be stopped until they figure out why this is happening.She will go days with great blood pressure readings (some times even too low), then all the sudden it will spike for hours usually in the evening and/or overnight. It will go close to or even over 200 on top and over 100 and even 120 on bottom.She has flushing, headaches, and buzzing in her ears when this happens.We've made many trips to ER and doctors.She's had an echocardiogram, EKGs, brain scan, blood work etc which don't provide answers.We are both losing a lot of sleep. I usually call her every 30-60 minutes until it goes down to make sure she doesn't stroke or something during these episodes.I am going to message her doctor and ask if he can check her kidney/adrenal glands and her thyroid (I noticed the TSH has been a little high on past tests).Is there anything else I should be doing or asking him for?I'm trying to hold off on talking to her about assisted living and I don't even know if she would qualify medically since she can still cook, clean, self-medicate etc. If we can't get it figured out though, she's going to need support through these.
What sort of brain scan did she have?
There are some pretty obscure things that can cause this pattern, including brain tumors (not to scare you) but I just read a case study with similar symptoms.
https://mail.aol.com/d/search/keyword=medscape/messages/AHZDIVgq5cSwZvl9vQfMGBgTxMk
She always calls it buzzing, I'll have to ask her more specific but I did look up her brain test and it was a CT...........
PROCEDURE: CT HEAD WITHOUT CONTRAST
HISTORY: HEADACHE. TINNITUS. HYPERTENSIVE.Headache
TECHNIQUE: CT examination of the head was performed without the administration of IV contrast material. Contiguous axial images were acquired. Dose reduction techniques were used including automatic exposure control and iterative reconstruction.
FINDINGS: The CSF spaces, including the cortical sulci and ventricles, are appropriate for the patient's given age. There is good gray-white matter differentiation. There is not evidence of acute bleed or mass effect. There is no shift in the midline structures. There are no abnormal extra-axial fluid collections. Basal ganglia calcifications.
IMPRESSION: No acute process.
So there I was measuring measuring. Before walk. After walk. After eating. Morning. Night. And all over the place or as they say LABILE.
You know what doc said?
She said "STEP TAKING YOUR BLOOD PRESSURE".
She put me back on my atenolol once a day, said take BP once a day, and that was that and guess what, most of the jumping around went away.
How old is your mom. This old nurse can guarantee you what my doc confirms, the BP becomes labile with age and vessel aging changes. You don't want it bottoming so low with medications that she falls over when getting up to the bathroom at night.
So.
Do what the doc suggests.
Measure one a day or twice a.m. and p.m. and keep a diary.
See about new medications; they may be doing the opposite of what you want.
Get GOOD BP monitor. If you use finger or wrist ALL MEASURES WILL BE WRONG and irratic. Use ARMS ONLY and use an Omron (best one) about 30 or 35 on amazon.
The rest of it is managing all of this to best of ability. I know everyone will already have done the whole SALT warnings thing.
Good luck.
She uses Cadence at home. She takes the blood pressure two different times during the day (arm) and it sends it to them and they send it to her doctor. She also has one of her own that she uses mainly while she's having a spike.
Other than the twice a day, she takes it when she feels the symptoms (flushing, ear buzzing, headache) which actually wakes her up while sleeping if she is already asleep.
They took her off the spironolactone which helped with issues such as increasing her low sodium. They've switched her from one med she was on to olmesartan which didn't change much. Her carvedilol was tripled over the past year which I don't think helped and I believe should be lowered. The biggest help was adding amlodipine. She also takes hydralazine only when her top number goes over 180.
Just so frustrating to have it be in control except for 2-3 times a week for 4-6 hours each time. It's hard to combat that and she gets scared she will stroke understandably. It also causes her to lose sleep which I'm sure doesn't help the blood pressure overall.
Maybe we expect too much for how her body is with aging.
She's 82 years old also.
You can buy both over the counter and see if a low dose give her any relief, I recommend magnesium be taken at night because it does have a relaxing effect and I don't like that feeling in the morning :-)
Best of luck finding the cause.
I know for myself, whenever the phone rings I can tell my blood pressure goes up, and this is a side effect from caring for my parents for almost a decade, and their calls to me about this issue and that. So I am wondering if your calls ever hour might be unintentionally influencing the pressure spikes because that causes your Mom to think about her blood pressure, thus worrying her. Sorta like Pavlov's Theory.
Ask her doctor if he/she thinks Mom could benefit from calming meds, very small dosage, and for you to cut back on your phone calls. Let your Mom call you if she feels panicky so you can help calm her nerves. Hope your Mom finds some relief.
I only call her every hour after one of these has started. She calls me letting me know she's having trouble and then I keep in touch until it subsides.
Calming meds sound like a good thing to try.