White Coat Hypertension

I saw my cardiologist today. Everything was fine. He did change my beta blocker from Toprol because my pulse rate was often in the 40's. I was not diagnosed with high blood pressure before dissection. It was typically about 130/80 in the doctor's offices without medication. I am now on 3 different blood pressure medications and my b/p at home averages 115/60. In any doctor's office since the dissection my blood pressure shoots up to 160 to 190/70 to 90 and stays up until I leave the office. My doctor is concerned. One line of thought is that if your b/p is that high in the office, it is probably that high any time you are stressed, but I explained to my doctor that I have taken my blood pressure in numerous situations and apparently I'm only stressed when I'm in a doctor's office. I work for the Veteran's Administration and talked to a psychologist regarding my newly acquired fear of doctors and he suggested PTSD. Just before the dissection, I felt fine and then without warning I felt the most horrific pain in my life and was shaking hands with the grim reaper (as we all experienced). I think doctors and CT scans, etc. trigger a memory of those events and it is extremely stressful. Does anyone else experience this? Thoughts? Am I nuts?

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Graeme on January 28, 2012 at 10:55am

No. Happened to me for years after my AD. Only after I started this site and became a LOT more relaxed and knowledgable around doctors and specialists did it stay calm.. Moral of the story: Become as familiar with you medical history as they are. You can ask for a full copy of it here in the UK. Get them to talk to you as a person - not an arms length patient. It works. ;-)

cheers

Graeme

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Elaine Howlin on January 29, 2012 at 3:58pm

I too have white coat hypertension so my GP does not even take my BP, he uses my figures. My BP is still too high at 130/70 and I am to attend a 'hypertension' clinic in February which will be interesting. I always had very low BP prior to my dissection 90/60 so I try not to think about it too much and aim to get it lower again. Because you are aware that your BP should be low it is bound to go up when you visit the Doctors. When I was deploying to Afghanistan in 2009 we all had to have a medical and BP had to be in the lower range,mine shot up too 140/90! Fortunately the medics were sensible and recorded it again at a less stressful time and funnily enough it was back down. Try not to think about it Jefferson as I am sure it is not high all the time as you have already stated.

Regards

Elaine