PSA Blood pressure surprise

[Lulu KC]

MORAL OF STORY: If you are on BP meds and you are feeling fatigue, malaise, and questioning your sanity more frequently than usual, check to see if your BP is too low. It can be dangerous. Especially applicable if you have recently lost some weight.

(I started with the moral of the story because this is a little long. Keep reading or not--but learn from my mistake if it's helpful.)

I am of a certain age. I started showing high BP about nine years ago, during a stressful time in my professional life along with teenagers at home--the whole shooting match. I have been able to titrate down over the years and as of three weeks ago I was down to 1/4 of where I'd started on medication. I was happy about that.

I started feeling sick about three weeks ago, what my husband calls a "nebulous malady." Just so tired. SO tired. I did the COVID test, went down a few rabbit holes about ME/CFS/fibromyalgia etc. Starting using my happy light more for SAD. I was able to do the minimum things, but in addition to being tired, I noticed I was thinking, "What is wrong with me? Why am I so stupid?" more often than usual. So I'm thinking, "Oh, my inner child is staging a coup! Stop beating yourself up!" I'm using all my mental health skills on that one, but still, I keep making really dumb mistakes that are not my usual type of dumb mistakes.

About a week ago I went out to my garden, just snipped a few floppy asters, nothing strenuous. I felt funny, lightheaded. I came inside and took my BP. It was about 90/60, and my heart rate was over 100. (I'm usually around 55-60.)

I contacted my GP who got me in the next day. I have recently lost a little weight (intentionally) and my BP med was too much for me. I was in low BP land. When your BP gets too low, your heart goes into overdrive, trying to keep things pumping so you can be sure to get oxygen to your organs, including your brain. Doctor reduced my meds by half and said it would take 4-5 days to take effect.

When I read about it I saw that "confusion" is one of the possible symptoms of low BP. I was in the middle of learning a couple of new volunteer functions during this period of feeling so tired, and while I had been thinking, "Why is this so hard?" it didn't occur to me that this is what actual medical "confusion" feels like. I thought I was just getting old! Everything takes a little longer to learn, right?

Then, over the weekend, I cleaned the house for about an hour. I had that same feeling that I'd had in the garden. Sure enough, BP was now 80 over 60 and heart rate was up to 120.

I rested, showered, and greeted guests for dinner.

While socializing I had two incidents of thinking, "What? Am I losing my mind?" I got so confused in one story that I want to sell the lines to a Hollywood writer to include in someone's movie. They are too long to type out, and they had such a comedic quality that I again did not recognize MEDICAL CONFUSION. We all laughed. My friend said, "Oh, the senior moments!" But this was really different.

By the next day, the titration had worked. I had gained a little weight from reducing a diuretic (that's okay) and I could feel my brain starting to kick back into gear. Since then, I think I've only had that feeling of, "What is wrong with me? Am I getting old?" a couple of times--I consider that normal! When I get out of the car I'm no longer pausing for a few seconds to hold on to the door--something that had become such a habit I hadn't even noticed it.

I am grateful that my doctor was able to get me in so quickly. She had laser beam focus and may have saved my life, or at least saved me from a trip to the ER if I had forced myself to keep going as I was.