Cyclotourist and the BP Adventure...

scan said:
Something often overlooked is the amount of stress that you may be under. Are you able to alleviate it? Ways to lessen it. Just a thought if it's even an issue.
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No change in stress levels. At least nothing I'm really conscious of. Exercise has dropped off since this spring, and in hindsight I eat a LOT of processed meats/cheese/chips. I've cut those nearly all out over the last week. Probably down just a single serving of cheese is all now. Alcohol has gone way down... maaaaybe like .5 serving per day over the same time. I did have a big double Drambuie & Scotch on Christmas day, but other than that, maaaaybe a glass of wine per day if that. Today I had a half-caf double cappuccino, but I'm not drinking much caffeine either. I always had half-caf mix. So there I am! BP isn't dropping, but isn't spiking. Dr. appt. tomorrow, will report back!!!

FYI, I've been logging everything on the Cronometer app, and it works pretty well if you're willing to be consistent with logging: https://cronometer.com/
 
Cyclotourist said:
Ed, what was the one that didn't work well as well as the one that did? Everyone's physiology is different, but that may be something I can throw into the conversation with my Doc.
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I believe the one I was on was Lisinopril and the one I'm on now is Enalapril.
 
Derkderkall said:
There's a good variety of inexpensive monitors available now. We picked one up for around$30,. Seems close to the cvs results.
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I took it in to the Kaiser clinic nurse who checked it against their monitor. It's good. BP is pretty stable at the 120/80 average. Going in today (waiting on call back) for ultrasound to check gallbladder/liver/pancreas. Thinking is that the culprit might be buried in there somewhere, and the high BP and pains were being caused by organ inflammation of some sort.

I went for a short 20 min tandem ride yesterday, and my BP was fine, but abdomen was miserable from leaning forward like that. Stay tune for more information!
 
Another update, because I know you're all waiting for it! Abdominal ultrasound this morning and no gallstones or inflammation. Liver seems good, although a little bit fatty. Follow up with urgent care doc and he's kind of like "I don't know."

So for now cardiac problems are ruled out, liver, pancreas, kidneys all seem to be functioning normally. He ordered a covid test and implied I should have been given one when I first went to the ER last month. Would be pretty weird if I turned up positive and all this stuff was covid symptoms/complications! I did go on a half hour tandem ride last night, and that was pretty nice!

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Cyclotourist said:
Another update, because I know you're all waiting for it! Abdominal ultrasound this morning and no gallstones or inflammation. Liver seems good, although a little bit fatty. Follow up with urgent care doc and he's kind of like "I don't know."

So for now cardiac problems are ruled out, liver, pancreas, kidneys all seem to be functioning normally. He ordered a covid test and implied I should have been given one when I first went to the ER last month. Would be pretty weird if I turned up positive and all this stuff was covid symptoms/complications! I did go on a half hour tandem ride last night, and that was pretty nice!

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So the Ultrasound was good, how was the mammograph?
 
Cyclotourist said:
Another update, because I know you're all waiting for it! Abdominal ultrasound this morning and no gallstones or inflammation. Liver seems good, although a little bit fatty. Follow up with urgent care doc and he's kind of like "I don't know."

So for now cardiac problems are ruled out, liver, pancreas, kidneys all seem to be functioning normally. He ordered a covid test and implied I should have been given one when I first went to the ER last month. Would be pretty weird if I turned up positive and all this stuff was covid symptoms/complications! I did go on a half hour tandem ride last night, and that was pretty nice!

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No 'Rona on me.

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Phone appt w/ PHP this morning. Basically I feel good and all tests are negative other than fatty liver and elevated ALT. So quit drinking I guess. He proscribed nitro for chest pains, but noted that the pains don't happen when I ride/exert/exercise. If the nitro diminishes the pains, that's a cardio problem. If not, then pains are something else. So back where we started for now.
To celebrate I got my teeth cleaned and rode for eight miles up into the hills on my townie. It was kinda' nice!

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Well this is good! The chest X-ray I took on the 29th came back today:
"No pleural effusions are seen. The cardiomediastinal silhouette is normal.
The vascular structures demonstrate no calcifications or other evidence of atherosclerotic disease.
Impression: No pulmonary infiltrate or nodular density. Unremarkable chest."

So hooray for being unremarkable! Everything so far is negative across the board. I went in for more blood work and pee test today (Waiting inside for an hour in a cloud of COVID exhaust sucks!), so hopefully that is good as well. I still have chest and arm pains, but maybe they're muscular/skeletal? Or maybe I'm imagining it all and need some shock therapy!

The plus side is that I've cut out 95% of all alcohol and processed meats, while trying to reduce sodium, fats, and calories a bit as well. Losing a little weight (~3lbs depending on the day) with the goal of losing more. In addition to the occasional pains mentioned above, I still get winded kind of easily. Don't know if that's just from over a month of inactivity, or related. But hey, I'm riding bikes again!

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Cyclotourist said:
Well this is good! The chest X-ray I took on the 29th came back today:
"No pleural effusions are seen. The cardiomediastinal silhouette is normal.
The vascular structures demonstrate no calcifications or other evidence of atherosclerotic disease.
Impression: No pulmonary infiltrate or nodular density. Unremarkable chest."

So hooray for being unremarkable! Everything so far is negative across the board. I went in for more blood work and pee test today (Waiting inside for an hour in a cloud of COVID exhaust sucks!), so hopefully that is good as well. I still have chest and arm pains, but maybe they're muscular/skeletal? Or maybe I'm imagining it all and need some shock therapy!

The plus side is that I've cut out 95% of all alcohol and processed meats, while trying to reduce sodium, fats, and calories a bit as well. Losing a little weight (~3lbs depending on the day) with the goal of losing more. In addition to the occasional pains mentioned above, I still get winded kind of easily. Don't know if that's just from over a month of inactivity, or related. But hey, I'm riding bikes again!

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That pic is good enough to be sold as Clip Art! Golden. ;)
 
Cyclotourist said:
Well this is good! The chest X-ray I took on the 29th came back today:
"No pleural effusions are seen. The cardiomediastinal silhouette is normal.
The vascular structures demonstrate no calcifications or other evidence of atherosclerotic disease.
Impression: No pulmonary infiltrate or nodular density. Unremarkable chest."

So hooray for being unremarkable! Everything so far is negative across the board. I went in for more blood work and pee test today (Waiting inside for an hour in a cloud of COVID exhaust sucks!), so hopefully that is good as well. I still have chest and arm pains, but maybe they're muscular/skeletal? Or maybe I'm imagining it all and need some shock therapy!

The plus side is that I've cut out 95% of all alcohol and processed meats, while trying to reduce sodium, fats, and calories a bit as well. Losing a little weight (~3lbs depending on the day) with the goal of losing more. In addition to the occasional pains mentioned above, I still get winded kind of easily. Don't know if that's just from over a month of inactivity, or related. But hey, I'm riding bikes again!

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Have they gotten you in yet?
 
For everyone clamoring to know any updates, this is your place! Phone appt. today after another round of testing. Everything is good, except lipid panel is high-ish. Not enough for anti-cholesterol meds, but keep monitoring sort of thing. I did get a stress test scheduled for next week, so that's the next step. Also gave a Rx for prednisone as he wants to rule out the numb arm not being a pinched nerve. It comes and goes randomly, and isn't related to exertion. Holding off on the chest CT for now, as the x-ray showed no problems. He also said it's the equivalent radiation to 100 chest x-rays, so don't do it unless you really need it.

Three slices of bacon and some wine yesterday. None of either today!
 
Cyclotourist said:
For everyone clamoring to know any updates, this is your place! Phone appt. today after another round of testing. Everything is good, except lipid panel is high-ish. Not enough for anti-cholesterol meds, but keep monitoring sort of thing. I did get a stress test scheduled for next week, so that's the next step. Also gave a Rx for prednisone as he wants to rule out the numb arm not being a pinched nerve. It comes and goes randomly, and isn't related to exertion. Holding off on the chest CT for now, as the x-ray showed no problems. He also said it's the equivalent radiation to 100 chest x-rays, so don't do it unless you really need it.

Three slices of bacon and some wine yesterday. None of either today!
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Yeah, bacon is probably contra-indicated going forward. But wine - much as I despise it, they say it's good for you. One glass a day, anyway. The red stuff.
 
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