Hey everyone, I love this forum, your all so helpfull. Here is my story and question.
I'm 37 and have been on BP meds for 20yrs. My mother had a heart attack 7 months ago and really woke me up... I went to my doctors office any he said my readings were a little high and I could really beat this if I lost weight and ate better. I took the challenge and lost 20pounds and work out lifting weights and running 2 miles 3 to 4 times a week..He dropped my meds from 50mg atenalol to 25 because my readings went down from 135/140 over 85/90 down to 115/65 consistently. Then he dropped them again to 12 and my BP stayed low. Then he took me off. Its been 6 weeks and I had an appointment yesterday and wouldn't you know it....my bp was 145/85 (Damn) He was not concerned at all because I had to wait in his office for over 2hrs to see him....

He wants me to monitor still once a week after I get home from work at the end of the day. I used to check my readings after I got home from the gym. Was this a bad Idea??

Also I have to sit at least 20 minutes till my readings are perfect. I check usually 4 times and it will start at 125/70 and go down from there or stay there. Can I average this and feel confident about my readings. Or should I take the first one and call it good.

I know that 125/70 is good. But I got use to readings below 120/80 when I checked after a workout. and I just want to know if I should be concerned.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rich :wave:

He wants me to monitor still once a week after I get home from work at the end of the day. I used to check my readings after I got home from the gym. Was this a bad Idea??For me (and probably most people), a reading taken about an hour after a workout will be a very low reading. It's probably OK to average in an occasional workout reading - afterall, your BP is really that low for a while. But, to only take readings after a workout is not going to give you an accurate picture of your BP.

Pal

Thnaks Palamedes, I appreciate your comments very much. I noticed last night I started to take my readings after work. My first was 124/70 then 7 min. later it was 125/68, then 7 min. later it was 116/68. So I averaged them out.
I bet that is more of my true readings.

Rich :wave:

i have found, and others seem to have the same problem, that the first reading on my monitor is wacko about 1/3 of the time

i wait a couple minutes between readings, throw out any that are way different than the others, and average the rest (usually 3)

at times if im not feeling well i will get a bunch of different readings, then i just average all of them

but you have to wait at least a minute between readings, maybe more depending on your build, as the cuff constricts the blood vessels & will cause subsequent readings to be higher if you dont wait long enough for them to relax back to their normal size

Congratulations on the good results of your hard work. You bp is fine, forget about it for a while. For the record, my is very low an hour after exercising, relatively high if I sit down quickly to take it after work. It drops off after I sit in the same place for several minutes--often as much as 15-20 mgs systolic. But all in all I wish I could achieve what you did.

Ya thanks for your advice Pal7778.
Its very frustrating to me, sometimes though.

Rich