Originally Posted by
bin tenn
I take a beta blocker for mildly elevated blood pressure, as well as tachycardia. I started it in July 2015. At every doctor visit since then, my BP in the office has run about 117/78. That is, until late last year. The provider I was seeing left (she was a PA, not MD), and I saw a new provider (same office) for the first time. My BP was 140/90, or something close to that. Weird, never had that problem before!
I saw her again a few months later for a refill. Same thing, BP still elevated. She recommended that I buy a BP cuff and check it at home a few times a week. If all is well, I can just check once a week. And eventually, I can just check if I really need to. All of my home readings are no more than ~130/85, on average, but that's without a full ten minutes of rest beforehand. I can run up the stairs and check it two minutes later and it's still that low. So now I don't check it except a couple times per month.
I saw my doc again a couple weeks ago. My first BP reading was about 140/85, when the nurse checked it. The doc came in a short time later and checked it again - 128/75. The difference? She didn't wear her white coat this time! Strange, huh? :-D