Blood Pressure...

Grant said:
what you are achieving there is a bit of a "false" low reading.
i use the word "false" in that the results will be far removed from "real world" results.

for example, if you did a test carried out in perfect conditions as you set out, you would get test result "a".
then if a test was done every hour of your normal daily routine, then an average was calculated - you will get result "b".
you will find a significant disparity between result "a" and result "b".

within that disparity will lie some clues !
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That's why you're not meant to take just a single reading and be done with it. Even when you're being monitored in A&E, the cuff every so often automatically tightens and takes a reading.
 
The Voice said:
That's why you're not meant to take just a single reading and be done with it. Even when you're being monitored in A&E, the cuff every so often automatically tightens and takes a reading.
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you were saying bp should be taken in an optimal environment and settings:
You literally need to stay motionless for at least 5 mins with the cuff on your arm before a reading is taken. Also, having anything in your bladder will also affect the reading, so go for a pee before.
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im saying we dont operate and live in that environment - and therefore a lower result will always be produced, by comparison to a random test in the middle of our actual day.
most suffer heart attacks or cardiac arrest during the course of our routine activities
 
marine1 said:
Jeezuz man, thats terrible, are you ok????
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nay, not really

getting all the wrong warning signs.
walking the dog - coming home a 50m slight incline, get to the top and i can barely breathe, coupled with harsh chest pain - and sweating like a jintoo in a confession box on good friday !
until a few moths back i would swim in the mornings (sea point pools).
50m pool x 10 laps & i would churn thru the water with ease non-stop - now at 25 to 50m and i cannot breathe.

cardiologist has me on this now , then back to his rooms in a week
2026-02-27 at 08.51.13.jpeg
"Isosorbide dinitrate is a vasodilator medication primarily used to prevent and treat angina pectoris (chest pain) and manage heart failure"
 
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Binary_Bark said:
To be honest, I stopped updating my script and just went off the meds. Stupid idea, walking around with a time bomb in my chest
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I think most pharmacies will give you your BP medication without an up-to-date script?

I'm on 5mg Prexum since 2016. The Doctor said my BP is well managed.

I did a test with the two chemists I use, here and at our holiday home, to see how far I could stretch my script, it went to around 2 years, I think. They'd even put those orange stickers on the box, new script needed or whatever which I ignored. I probably could have made it stretch even more, but I needed to see my doctor to do the usual sugar and PSA tests, so asked him to write a new script.

The pharmacists probably need that script if it's going to medical aid. Mine goes to medical aid but I don't have a savings portion with my plan. So always state I'm paying cash.

Side note:
My mother died from an aneurism at age 66 due to high blood pressure.
She hated BP medications, they never agreed with her is what she told everyone, made her feel lightheaded. I think mom had sleep apnoea which made it even worse.
Basically, what I'm saying, if one BP medication doesn't agree with you, go to the Doctor and try a different one until you find the one that works for you.
If you think you have Sleep Apnoea btw, go to a Sleep Clinic, get tested and if you have too many apnoea incidents per hour at night, get yourself on to a C-PAP asap, it may change your life, it did for me.

BP, Kidney Function, Sugar. The silent killers. IMHO.
Stay healthy, eat well, OMAD diet, and exercise.
 
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so complicating the junk heart, i also have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

amongst the mountain of meds (11 now) is this higher grade inhaler.
wondering if anyone has used or familiar with these things ?
there is zero taste - seems like im sucking air out of an empty plastic container - although i was told there is no taste or spray

2026-03-24 at 09.21.28 (1).jpeg


2026-03-24 at 09.21.28.jpeg
 
Grant said:
so complicating the junk heart, i also have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

amongst the mountain of meds (11 now) is this higher grade inhaler.
wondering if anyone has used or familiar with these things ?
there is zero taste - seems like im sucking air out of an empty plastic container - although i was told there is no taste or spray




View attachment 1895844
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Sorry to hear this - is it genetic perhaps ? Or lifestyle choices caused it ? Or just one of those "such is life" moments ?

Not COPD but only once in life, I was recommended aesthaline inhaler as I had breathing difficulties (nfi what caused it and it was more than 25 years ago and never happened again since)

What I remember that it was such a relief after using it and I still recall kind of steely taste.
 
Sideshow Bob said:
Sorry to hear this - is it genetic perhaps ? Or lifestyle choices caused it ? Or just one of those "such is life" moments ?

Not COPD but only once in life, I was recommended aesthaline inhaler as I had breathing difficulties (nfi what caused it and it was more than 25 years ago and never happened again since)

What I remember that it was such a relief after using it and I still recall kind of steely taste.
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heart thing is both genetic and lifestyle.
my mother and her 3 sibling all landed up undergoing an assortment of invasive cardiac procedures - all died of cardiac arrest.
i've been warned by my own doctors for the last 20yrs to stop smoking, cut the salt, reduce dairy intake . . .
needless to say, i continued down my path of choice.
so there is an element of genetics with a large helping of lifestyle - and a side of arrogance.
between lifestyle and arrogance, things could have been brought under control a long time ago, now i'm humpty dumpty sitting on the wall, humpty dumpty had a great fall, all the kings horses and all the king's men, couldn't put humpty together again !

all my life i have had breathing problems - asthma pumps everywhere & nebuliser at home .
along with that were regular admissions to emergency rooms and being placed on high-flow nasal oxygen overnight.

compounding my lack of self care, or perhaps better put - was the level of arrogance.
while studying, at some point the academic work gives way to more prac work within hospitals.
at the outset we spend time in different departments: nephrology, pulmonology, cardiology, neurology, cardiac perfusion and forensics. out of that we make our choice as to direction of further study.
one of us would serve as a guinea pig of sorts in the different departments - i landed up being the guinea pig in the lung function laboratory. in the lab is a glass box of sorts.
you sit in it, it is sealed - and you breathe. this accurately measures your lung capacity by means of a valve that measures displacement and intake as you breathe.
with that done and moving along, the doctor pulls me aside and asks me if i am undergoing any treatment.
to that i answer "no" but am on ventolin & berotec.
with that he replies not being my doctor, he is not in a position to recommend and form of treatment, but the oxygen bearing capacity of my lungs is significantly less than it should be.
this was 30yrs ago.

but here is an interesting thing - i was always a "water baby", by the age of 4 i had learnt how to swim.
when i was a kid, our houses always had a pool, typically a big pool, bigger than most.
as kids we always dive in one end and try swim underwater holding our breath to the other end.
i was always able to achieve this without problem, where my friends would fail.
i was a stronger swimmer than all of them - just dropping into the deep end, i was able to stay under longer than anyone else.
at school i was in the 1st team for swimming and water-polo..
i constantly won 50 & 100m races for freestlye, backstroke & butterfly - this also competing against other schools.
beyond 100m, i was dead in the water.
then one day our coach noticed something different in the way i swam - specifically freestyle.
instead of turning my head for air every 4 strokes like everyone else, i would only turn for air every 6 strokes.
this gave me a huge speed advantage going thru the water.
so it was a case of me being a strong swimmer, but also able to hold my breath for longer periods than others.
in all these races, everyone in the pool would be similarly placed, but from halfway i would always be pulling ahead.
in a 50m race, i was typically finishing 3 seconds ahead of the 2nd place, and in a 100m race, usually 5 seconds ahead of 2nd place.
i gave this some thought some time back, and i suspect i was not accelerating ahead of others, but instead holding a constant pace as others slowed down as they ran out of air
in all of this, i tend to be of the opinion my body had somehow already adapted to a reduced lung capacity, inadvertently giving me an advantage over others in the water.

now, all these years later, that same reduced lung capacity, and with it a reduced oxygen bearing capacity of red blood cells, has resulted in irreversible heart damage
 
ICU Delirium
an interesting account by Tony Jackman - writer at Daily Maverick

My Heart Story: Shape-shifters, paranoia, and jazz on the operating table​


Suddenly, the day before my open-heart surgery less than a month ago, the song surged back into my life. My anaesthetist came by for a chat, and before we were done he asked: “Tony, I want to play a song in the theatre while you’re going under. Give me a song.”

Where does the anaesthetised state end and the next phase begin, the period when (though you may not know it) you’re in a post-operative state, and recovering. Packed with meds the names of which you’re scared to ask. After the supposed MRI, there is nothingness, only confusion. All sense of time disappeared. Morning felt like late afternoon, afternoon like morning. They’d bring me food and I’d think it was breakfast but it was supper, the sun was bright and I’d look forward to sunset only to learn it was 9am.
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