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What blood pressure and how
With assending aorta dilation, the drs want you to keep your pressure down. But what is the pressure we should be attempting to achieve ? Also, in measuring , I know, sit up straight in a chair , feet flat on the floor, arm roughly straight out, but below heart. But, if I walk from the other end of my house (50 feet) , sit down, slap the cuff on and push the button, it's going to be higher. So what do you do to get the correct reading ? Sit for 10 minutes and try to go into a coma before hitting that button ?
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Look at the recommendations for your age, gender, etc your cardiologist should also give you a target, mine (I'm 60, male) for example is around 120/70 on average, having a few measurements above 120 is OK but the average over a period of time should be close to the target.
There have been a discussion in this forum about how long to wait before starting to take your BP, like most people, if I take it immediately after going downstairs in my house it will be higher than expected. I normally wait for about 10-15 min. I also use a device that takes 3 measurements and provides the average, 30 seconds between measurements. I often notice that my last measurement is lower than the first, and that is normal I have been at rest longer. If interested the device is an Omron, it also connects to an app in my phone and maintains all the records for me, I can then export them to a report and send them to my cardiologist/PCP when needed. The report will show all the individual measurements as well as the average. The app also allows you to enter manually taken BPs for when I use a different device.
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1 Reaction@houston13 thanks, I have that same device. I printed out a report for my pcp, he said... that's pretty slick,but fill out the chart I gave you...
I dont have a cardiologist yet,I saw a vascular surgeon... she was not helpful, other than putting me on another type of bp pill. I had to about pull it out of her to get her to say 110/70 .
If 120/70 is good, then I'm OK. 115/70 in the morning heart rate aboutv52. Afternoon it goes up to 123/72. And evening it's 125 maybe 130 / 75.
But I don't like the metoprlol I'm on.. makes me feel like I've got a head cold. But only on it for 10 days so far? Don't know where to look up for 69... plus having a dilated aorta
@ronludington, I have been able to keep mine fairly stable around my target, but in my case my aneurysm is already repaired, so the target may be different if yours is not, so don't dismiss the target they give you. I have mentioned before, not all cardiologists understand fully the implications of aortic diseases, some specialize in them and that is the type of cardiologist you should look for, it makes a huge difference in care, follow up, answers, etc. My cardiologist still monitors and makes emphasis on my BP because other aneurysms may appear, there seems to be a propensity in my family (I also had a brain aneurysm, also repaired)
Hope everything goes well for you, remember a surgeon will help you prepare for surgery and will see you a couple of times after, but the cardiologist will follow you up for life, so it is very important to get a good one.
@houston13 , I'm in the process of getting one now, referred to the sanger vascular clinic co-director. I was not thrilled with my appointment with the vascular surgeon. Since she wouldn't be working on me, it seemed like she did t have much interest.