One Step Forward and Two Steps Back...

One step forward and two steps back. That’s how I feel every time I go to a doctor lately.  And I see a lot of doctors; primary care doctor, neurologist, pain specialist, urologist, pulmonologist, neuro-opthamologist, cardiologist, and every few months a podiatrist.  All of these specialists are necessary because of the multiple chronic conditions I live with.  Some, like Multiple Sclerosis, include a variety of symptoms that can be treated by specialists, so the list is long.  I see some of these doctors regularly, anywhere from every 6 weeks to twice a year, and others I see only as needed but when everything is acting up I feel like all I do is go to doctors’ offices.  That is frustrating, but even more frustrating is when I leave a doctor with more questions than when I went in and an appointment to either have yet another test or to see another doctor, which is exactly what happened this morning.

Among the many health issues I deal with is high blood pressure (b/p).  Until 1994 my blood pressure was very low, so low at times that the nurse or doctor would have a difficult time finding it.  I don’t know why this changed but there were probably several   things going on in my body that caused it to be higher, although not dangerously high until about six months ago when it started to move into the danger zone.

It’s not clear whether my high blood pressure, or hypertension, is a result of the yet undiagnosed respiratory problems I’ve had for the last few years, the chronic pain I have lived with for 45 years from my spine condition, MS or the symptoms related to it, or if there is a problem in the circulation of my blood caused by renal reflux. I am scheduled to have a diagnostic test called venal mapping for this in early August.

I met with a new primary care doctor last Thursday because I did not feel my current doctor was taking this chronic hypertension seriously enough and I need someone who is willing to be my partner in obtaining the best health care possible.  My blood pressure has been running anywhere from 150/90 (low) to 233/120 (high), and all I have been told is to continue taking the medicine I have been taking for the past few years with no results. 

The new doctor, Dr. P., spent over 2 hours with me last Thursday and asked me many questions about my family’s and my medical history, from childhood to the present.  She then gave me a thorough physical, did a cardiogram and ordered several screening tests that I haven’t had in a while, including an echocardiogram, mammogram and bone density test.   Since my blood pressure was high she told me to come back to get hooked up to a 24-hour B/P monitor.

I arrived at 10 a.m. the next day, as requested, had the monitor hooked up and then waited for five minutes until the machine took the first pressure, just to be sure it was working.  The nurse that was setting the monitor up looked at it, looked at me, then said she wanted to run it again.  This time I knew the look was not one of simple curiosity, I figured my blood pressure was off the charts—and it was, 233/120, the highest it has ever been.