WOW! At last someone that I can share my utter frustrations about my Hypertension with.
I'm 48 years old and live in South Africa. I had trouble in controlling my BP for the last 10 years, bit the last 3 years was the worst. I was using the normal BP medication-combinations-diuretics and Beta blockers. One morning about 3 years ago when I woke up, my eyesight was not normal as it was the previous day. I could not read at normal distance and had blurred vision in my mid range. I thought that the 40's syndrome of weaker eyesight has eventually caught up with me. I got prescription glasses and went on my merry way, not knowing what was actually happening with me.
I started to get agitated easier and was losing my temper on a regular basis, so much so that my wife and children started to avoid me on purpose when I got home from work. My doctor said that it was stress and that I should change my lifestyle.... wonderful!!!! I started to go to the gym and got totally addicted to it though I could not understand why I did not lose weight. I'm 192cm and weigh 112kg at the time. I was doing cardio only and not trying to build muscle. My weight sky rocketed to 128kg's in less than a year. I then took up road running and ran my first ultra-marathon in April last year. Wow, what a feeling of accomplishment! I finished in time and got my first medal! My weight dropped to 102kg and I thought that I'm on the right way, eating healthy, exercising etc. My moods were better and people wanted to be around me again.
At that stage I was monitoring my BP on a monthly basis at the gym, and although it was on the high side (145/90) it did not bother me so much, seeing that I'm taking my meds and did the lifestyle changes recommended.
Sitting at my computer one morning in May last year reading my e-mails, my nose started to bleed. I did have a slight cold, and thought that the bleed stems from that, but it got worse and did not stop. I went to nose and throat specialist that diagnosed an arterial bleed in the back of my nose. He took my BP while fixing the tear. What a shock!! My BP was 256/165!! He immediately referred me to a specialist physician. And this is how it all started for me. I was hospitalized and put on a drip to stabilize my BP. it took 3 days to do that. During that time they started with the tests to determine the cause of the high BP.A 24hr urine test showed highly elevate adrenaline counts. My physician told me that a "normal" count is around 3000 units (of what I still don't know)and that mine was 13500, 10500 more than the norm. This could only indicate a tumor on my adrenal glands. Ct scan and kidney sonar showed normal. Then a heart sonar showed thickened heart muscle and some mitral valve noise. My cholesterol levels were normal but as a matter of precaution he put me on medication to lower it more. My sugar was elevated and he prescribed Glucophage to help control that. All that with my new BP medication had such an adverse effect on me that I could not walk for about 3 weeks. Every move was painful, I was constantly tired but could not sleep. When my BP started to control to about 140/105 he added an antidepressant into the mix to help me cope. In the meantime my ability to work decreased. I started to forget stuff, ordinary things like names of my co-workers, how to change gears on my car and where I was going to when driving. My outbursts of rage came back big time, I would loose my temper over the slightest things. Even at myself for forgetting things or the inability to plan ahead for the next hour or day. Work became a monster that was slowly defeating me and driving me mad. I lost concentration and nothing mattered for me anymore, all I wanted to do was to curl-up and die!
My medication changed again and my muscle soreness went away, but in its place came the most excruciating headaches. I was booked off from work to see if that would not help in curing me. My medication worked well and some days my BP would drop to 90/60 and my heart rate would be at 160 for 24 hours. My BP would then "normalize" and my heart rate would go back to 60 or 62 but then I'm so tired that I cannot move.
Now I'm on this roller coaster ride, one day BP high (167/116) feeling if I can murder everyone around me and as stupid as a brick, and the next day my BP would be (116/75) and I would get the worst angina attacks imaginable.
I really don't know what to do any more.They have done a brain MRI and found nothing wrong and my adrenal levels have normalized. A radio isotope spectrogram also showed nothing, no tumors or any abnormalities. All my blood tests were normal and still BP that is all over the place. My last heart sonar showd a 8% decrease in heart function over the last 10 months which is a disturbing factor for me. If that is the ratio of deterioration of my heart, the I think I have a problem coming soon.
I hope that I have not bored you to much with my story. I only which that some one would find a cure or explanation for our BP saga's.
All the best for you all!
Daniel
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