Went to check my pressure at my doctor’s office that was scheduled 3 weeks ago when I got my new prescription drug Micardis. Like the reading I got at home, the reading the nurse got was a bit high, 150/106. I told her that I have been off the medication for almost two weeks, which surprised her. After I told her what I had just went through with Micardis, she said, if that was the case, instead of a nurse visit, she wanted me to see my doctor.
After discussing the condition with my doctor, she said she didn’t mind if I wanted to get off the medication but the pressure was too high and if I was afraid about the side effect, she asked me to just take half the dose and see what happens until I came home from my vacation? I did mention that I didn’t like reading that the Toprol would also affect my memory but she said I need to lower my pressure first. We can talked about that once I get back from my vacation.
I thought that wasn’t a bad idea, particularly I was so busy at work in the past few days and in the afternoon I couldn’t stand the pain in the back of my neck. Yesterday was a crazy day. Got up at 4:30AM, already in my office at 6:00AM, got off at 12:00PM at was in the airport at 3:00PM. No, I didn’t check my pressure but the pain in my neck told me that it was high.
This morning, I’m few thousand miles from home. I haven’t taken my blood pressure medication and haven’t check the reading yet. But on my flight here I read Robert E. Kowalski’s book, ‘The Blood Pressure Cure – 8 Weeks to Lower Blood Pressure Without Prescription Drugs” that I picked up few days ago at the book store. However, that’s another story.
One thing I would like to cite here is the blood pressure classification per the Joint National Committee (JNC) on Blood Pressure and Hypertension that was mentioned in Robert’s book. JNS is a branch of the National Institute of Health in the US. Its seventh set of guidelines for classification and treatment are as follows:
| Category | Systolic | Diastolic |
| Optimal | 115 or less | 75 or less |
| Normal | Less than 120 | Less than 80 |
| Prehypertension | 120 to 139 | 80 to 89 |
| Stage 1 hypertention | 140 to 159 | 90 tp 99 |
| Stage 2 hypertension | More than 160 | More than 100 |
Using that chart, I’m now in Stage 2 hypertension and it would be a while to get back to a normal blood pressure but I’m looking forward to get there and I’m doing this to record how do I get there.
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