blood pressure and pulse

I have been check my blood pressure this past week with the machines at the
pharmacies. I usually only do it "just to see" because it is always fine.
But the last few times I have checked, the Systolic is 148ish, the diastolic
is always fine and my pulse is 120ish. It's not that I have been exerting
myself before these checks either, so I am mildly concerned.

I have an appointment with the Dr. on Thursday so I will mention it then but
should I be worried in the meantime? I have been feeling fine. I was also
wondering if it could be due to a too high dose of Synthroid. I am hypo and
my meds have been adjusted twice to where I am now taking 0.1mcg when I
started at 0.05mcg. So my dose has doubled.

I am at 5.5 months now, just around the end of the second trimester

Stormlady wrote:

should I be worried in the meantime? I have been feeling fine.

I wouldn't worry if it were me, especially if I were feeling fine.
These machines aren't guaranteed to be accurate (for one thing, who
knows when they ever get calibrated). You can check your own pulse.
Perhaps do that just to see if the machine is at least accurate about
*that* much.

Also, you can throw off a blood pressure measurement done by a machine
by tensing the muscles in your arm or moving a bit. (tensing the
muscles in your arm can throw off a manual reading, too)

"Vicky Bilaniuk" wrote in message
.. .
Stormlady wrote:

should I be worried in the meantime? I have been feeling fine.

I wouldn't worry if it were me, especially if I were feeling fine.
These machines aren't guaranteed to be accurate (for one thing, who
knows when they ever get calibrated). You can check your own pulse.
Perhaps do that just to see if the machine is at least accurate about
*that* much.

Also, you can throw off a blood pressure measurement done by a machine
by tensing the muscles in your arm or moving a bit. (tensing the
muscles in your arm can throw off a manual reading, too)

My Perinatologist told me not to worry unless I got high readings at least 3
hours apart, because BP can change so rapidly. And, on my home monitor, I've
had 20 pt swings in 15 minutes. That's also why I'm checking and charting
4-5 times a day, because that evens out the curves.

Actually, the machines in pharmacies usually are calibrated
regularly-another thing that was suggested was that if I got consistent home
readings which were high, to check with one of those and see if that reading
was high too before calling-because, according to the Peri, those machines
are usually more accurate than the home ones.

I saw a newsreel on TV the other day about these machines. They say that
they are always showing pressure higher than a manual check. The doctors
have nothing against that: it says it makes the patients more aware of
possible problems, and make them check out with them more often.

And I think you are right, it could be the synthroid increase. While I would
not worry in the meantime, I would ask your doctor to have your TSH checked,
on top of your pressure, just to make sure you're not getting too much. Mind
you, your pressure will not skyrocket from a couple of weeks on higher
dosage. It takes longer that to have such effects. But a slight increase
could be symptomatic of a too high dosage. BTW, I'm not a doctor, I'm just
stating opinion related to my personal experience as a pregnant
hypothyrodian woman.

Isabelle


"Stormlady" don't@ email.me wrote in message
...
I have been check my blood pressure this past week with the machines at
the
pharmacies. I usually only do it "just to see" because it is always fine.
But the last few times I have checked, the Systolic is 148ish, the
diastolic
is always fine and my pulse is 120ish. It's not that I have been exerting
myself before these checks either, so I am mildly concerned.

I have an appointment with the Dr. on Thursday so I will mention it then
but
should I be worried in the meantime? I have been feeling fine. I was
also
wondering if it could be due to a too high dose of Synthroid. I am hypo
and
my meds have been adjusted twice to where I am now taking 0.1mcg when I
started at 0.05mcg. So my dose has doubled.

I am at 5.5 months now, just around the end of the second trimester