Day 27: Now What? High Blood Pressure, Increase Fluid Intake, May Decrease Insulin by 2 Units in the AM

September 14 2013

9:58am

FBG 111

12:47pm

PP BG 93

2:52pm

BG 71

5:26m

PP BG 120

8:25pm

119

10:37pm

 PP BG 98

It's annoying when the blood glucoses are doing so well that my blood pressure is so high. It is really little comfort to say it is due to the hip and leg pain especially at my age when it could be other things.

I had been having occasional momentary "feel" of difficult breathing that I chalked up to allergies because after taking my allergy meds and a hit of my inhaler it went away. It occurred after going outside with Bailey into my jungle of a back yard and I also noted that allergens were high, I was well perfused and easily able to do deep yoga breaths so probably it was due to the allergens. 

I also wonder if I have been developing anxiety in my old age, insulin still scares me and I so want off of it. I am taking a mild blood pressure med for a period of time when my blood pressure was between 130-140 systolic (top number) and 80-90 diastolic (bottom number).

I had a very good physiotherapy session yesterday, so I was not surprised at the high amount of pain and without a heating pad I was not managing it very well. My heating pad and won’t be able to replace it until next week. I have microwave heating pads but they don’t last long enough and I have to get up to reheat them and interrupt the therapy and it’s almost like starting over. I am going to get a heated blanket next week as well. The pain after PT is usually worse than the rest of the week – even my bad shoulder ached but I did a new exercise that used that arm.. 

Within the past week and a half I had have some days where I had been feeling tired, weak, on edge, a little dizzy, difficulty concentrating, and my eyesight a little blurry, sort of like when blood sugar is high.  So I thought maybe my blood pressure is low, after all it is always perfect when I go to the docs, even when in pain, and since I had lost all this weight it only follows. So I dug out an old blood pressure kit, thinking it would be low but the sounds started high and faded at 120 to 100. It was a little hard for me to control, the bulb was old and the cuff was a bit hard to get on and part of the bladder was coming out but I knew it wasn't low. The cuff probably needs to be thrown out but I think it worked enough to give me an idea. Naturally I was now more upset, in sorrow that after losing all this weight and getting my blood glucose in control that I am hit in the head with this. I felt defeated.

I took my one and only .5 mg Xanax that I had put up for years, and it worked, I relaxed but did not go to sleep had blood glucose to monitor. When it was time to sleep I put on some lovely classical music very low, took a 1 gm of melatonin and went to sleep. I slept well, waking only once due to pain, medicated with ibuprofen, fell back to sleep and would have slept later if the pain wasn't so insistent. It hurts less when I am up and about. Bailey was also waking me and then there is the insulin and blood glucose routine.

This morning I took one bp pill and rechecked and while the arterial sounds were better I took another. After the fog from the melatonin and Xanax wore off I felt pretty good. I was going to go to check my BP at Walgreens when Anthony got off of work but he got off late and I felt pretty good and tired by that time – it was time for dinner and insulin. I am going to check my bp in the morning at Walgreens and if it is still high will take another bp pill.

I see my new doctor for the second time next Thursday. He was not pleased I was on this particular bp med because it causes edema, and it just so happened my legs were a bit edematous, but it was not because of the bp med it was because of that horrid Gabapentin I was on for a week or so which caused all sorts of crazy anxiety etc. When I went off it I urinated frequently for two days. At any rate the bp med was ordered by the inept physician who delayed good treatment of diabetes so I am open to discussion regarding changing the med as long as it is not something like Lisinopril. Wonder who the genius was who thought it was ok to make a bp medicine that causes coughing as a side effect and expect people to shine on it?

Having a clearer head I realized I also have not been paying attention to my fluid intake. Today I also pushed fluids, besides my morning tea (I skipped my beloved coffee this morning, and will continue if I have to). I realized that besides my morning coffee of about 20 oz, I sip all day on a bottle of water, often with some left over. Not a good thing, esp. since I am losing weight and beginning to increase my activity. So I figure two 24 oz bottles of water in addition to a couple of cups of tea in the morning should be good and certainly doable.