Hi there! I am new to this board and have been reading all the posts. There are some very knowledgeaable people here and I'm hoping to get some advice from you. I am a 43 year old woman, very healthy, should lose 30 lbs, but working hard on that, back in February I had a terrible ear infection, at the time the Dr. said that my blood pressure was high, 150's/90's. I was taking tons of sudafed, high doses of ibuprofen. He told me to stop taking sudafed and it would probably just come down. In the meantime I ended up in the emergency room several days later, (allergic reaction to antibiotic), extremely high blood pressure 180/100, racing heart 125. They kept me for a day sent me home with instructions to see my Dr. next day.

At this point I am totally freaked out about the high blood pressure, having minor anxiety attacks, which I had also never experienced, related to worry over high blood pressure. The doctor put me on HCTZ which brought it down, but not to normal, added Lisinopril, brought it down a little bit more, then adjusted the dose on that, Lisino-HCTZ 20-25, it's completely normal if not very low the last month or so. I now get readings of upper 90's/60's, occassionally between 100-110/70's.

I am working out at the gym regularly, trying hard to diet, really watching my sodium. Prior to this year infection I had never had any problem with HBP. I had a full physical just six months before this episode and everything was perfectly normal. Is it possible that the ear infection could have triggered this? Is it possible that I don't need to be on this medication anymore? Do people ever have short term hbp episodes brought on by illness?

I know I'm asking alot of questions, I'm just trying to be really informed before talking to my Dr. about stopping the meds. I don't mind taking them, I have no side effects at all, I just hate to be taking them if I don't really need to.

Hi Loris- You may very well not have true hypertension and that infection crisis was just that, a crisis. I would definitely ask your doctor to work with you to get you off meds for a while and then see what happens.

The fact that your BP was always normal and you'd had it taken 6 months earlier and it was fine then, makes me wonder if you really have a BP problem. The infection, all that sudafed (which definitely raises BP) and then the anxiety that ensued all could have contributed to your BP being haywire for a while. And hopefully it MAY be that it was temporary.

Talk to your doc. Get back to us here if he says no!

zuzu xxx