Can I mess up my blood pressure readings with arm cuffs, ibuprofen?

@ehdog

No. First off you should be able to slip 2 fingers under the cuff in the front. In your case maybe not 2 if they are fat. It should not be tight.
#2 The front of the cuff should be about an inch from the crease in your elbow. You have it too low.
#3. The air tube coming from the cuff should point to the middle finger of your hand. If there is a mark then this should point to the middle finger. There is a doohickey in the cuff that cuts off the blood flow by squeezing on the artery. As the pessure is relaxed the point at which blood starts to flow is your systolic number. When the artery is fully open that gives you your diastolic number.

I do not know if cuffs are interchangeable among/between brands.

If you have enough adipose padding that the device can't properly minipulate your artery at the elbow you might consider a wearable device or a wrist unit.

Great question, @ehdog. I particularly love it because of fantastic timing with my own nurse visit to review how I am taking my blood pressure (bp) at home.

Everyone is bringing up good thoughts to consider. My thoughts go to the root of why you are asking. My doctor recently recommended medication changes, wanted me to bring my home machine in and visit with a nurse for education and make sure my home readings are accurate. The nurse watched me put on the cuff and take my own bp. Then, she took a series of readings alternating between her machine and mine. She determined my machine is accurate, I know how to take my readings properly and helped me understand parameters as to when I would need to contact my doctor. Now I am all set to manage my bp and my doctor knows readings I pass on to her are reliable. I suspect this may eliminate the needs to see my doctor in the clinic should I notice changes.

I guess I give you details of my recent experience to add into the mix of the good recommendations you are reading from others, to encourage you to run your questions by your doctor, maybe request the same type of appointment. It is making things less stressful here because I know my doctor will find the readings I take as reliable and I know when to contact her.

Do you have a specific schedule, or reason you are monitoring your blood pressure? Do you have a range that is “safe” for you?

@jlharsh
Excellent information and guidance on what to do.

@ashlynnmae

A better pic would help.

What brand is your unit? Looks like one of those Vital Track units which is pricey, but can be a PITA to use one-handed.

When I get my 24 hour monitoring the cuff is usually a sloppy fit, but they get a lot of good readings out of it.

BP cuffs typically come in 2 sizes adult regular and adult large. There are smaller ones for kids too. The adult large or x-large should work but they don’t usually come with the automatic cuffs. You need to buy it separately unfortunately.

My recent 24 hour check the fit was snug. Somehow it got knocked awry and during the reading it got so tight I knew it would wake me up. My arm was so sweaty and sticky I couldn't adjust it without loosening it. Don't know if had any effect, but I had a lot of good readings and all were high.

I have 2 different units where the cuff from one plugs into both base units, but the cuff from the other one does not plug into both base units.

I have since learned I was using the cuff wrong. It should be about 1.5 inches from your tendon. Try to feel your pulse in the vicinity of the tendon. If you can't feel it then the thingy in the cuff may not either. Would suggest using a wrist device which you can verify at your doc's office. I look for trends and not exact numbers/results. Yesterday mid-afternoon in the hand surgeon's office it was 100/64. I don't recall EVER having a legit reading that low.

@gravity3
Also use the opportunity at the doctor's office to have them do a reading with their cuff and compare to a reading from your cuff to check for accuracy.