Hypertension- Freaking out!!!

[Andy699]

Hi everyone!

I've been having a HUGE hypertension crisis freakout yesterday and today. Was so scared this morning I was gonna call in sick but I didn't (which i'm glad of)... Here are the facts:

I'm fairly new to the site, my name's Andy and I turned 19 last month. I was at a friends house yesterday and his mum is diabetic so she has one of those wrist self check blood pressure things. Just out of curiosity I used it and it was 190 over 100! I used it twice more and it was over 200!! Then the panic really began... considering the norm is 120.

My friend wasn't helping. I'd drank on the weekend so I thought it might be that be he said it wasn't. So I got home and googled (so stupid I know). Apparantly there's hundreds of things that can cause high blood pressure. I felt relieved. But this mroning I woke up and kept thinking what if it's something REALLY serious.

I work at a nursing home so I asked one of the nurses about it and she said that the self-check ones mess up and give wrong results all of the time. She said if I was really over 200 I'd be really really ill and would find it hard to do things. 3 weeks ago I had my blood pressure checked at hospital and they said it was completely normal. She said not to worry about it and she said even if the checker was right, LOADS of things can cause high blood pressure.

Sorry for the very long post but is she right? I'm really scared. Thanks so much guys!

[nomorepanic]

You do need to fit the cuff properly to get accurate readings and the wrist monitors are not as accurate as the arm one. I was told by my doctor NOT to buy or use the wrist one for this reason.

I would go to the doctor and get them to do it again if you are worried though.

[kittikat]

I totally agree with Nicola...I have high BP which is controlled by medication. When I used to monitor my own, I had some very scary readings which made me worry all the more. I ended up throwing the thing away.

I had no symptoms at all and my BP was very high. It was only discovered during a routine check for something else. That was about 8 years ago and I am still here to tell the tale!

Go and see your GP and get a proper reading done...they may do 2 or 3 on you just because sometimes it can read high to start with especially if you are anxious about it.

Good luck. Kitti

[Andy699]

Thanks for the replies guys! I'm gonna go back to my GP. hopefully everything will be fine, especially if it was a few weeks ago