Here we are

    Many weeks in now and I am finding my blood pressure stays great with half a dose of  Lisinopril, BUT does about 3 points better on a full dose, consistantly. I had hoped to see it improve on the half dose, but it stays firm. And my home blood pressure cuff is still going strong and accurate. I can rely on it and that is a comfort.
    I have stayed on track with adding things to my diet, but am waiting for long term positive results. Adding certain beans and more olive oil, etc. I know is supposed to help, but I can't say there is a radical change so far, of course. I will say, my tea consumption has branched out even more and, for varieties sake, have added different flavors, caffeine free. Everything still revolves around my hibiscus tea and white tea, they stay my base.
    In my tea quest, I found and harvested some boneset plants and dried it for boneset tea in my kitchen. Removing flowers and leaves after drying for two weeks or so, I tossed those in my food processor and stored it in my cabinet in a jar. Great tea for cold and flu, etc. I want it for my whole family, but taking NyQuil or other cold relief meds makes my blood pressure go sky high, so I am happy to have this option. I tested it on myself and didn't die, yay! Plus my nose, which was a little stuffy, opened fast, and stayed open for hours on testing day. I was surprised! My husband took some, he was ok other than breaking out in a full body sweat, suddenly. Lasted about 10 minutes. Yeahhh, it's supposed to do that as well, but didn't happen to me. Last night I gave my third kid some boneset tea. He had some wheeziness and a barking cough. I was amazed how he perked up and didn't cough all the evening until this morning. He said he felt much better. Side note, this tea is VILE, but my sick kid said it didn't taste that terrible....lucky him.

    I went to the doctor last on Saturday the 20th and after weeks of being on the meds, was pretty pleased to have left the initial side effects behind me, but had a list of new ones that have popped up. Feeling light headed off and on I do expect, but I have been bruising like nothing else! Crazy, huge, big bruises. I am a pretty sturdy gal in this regard, and have not ever had but one bruise at a time. I am only a house wife and mom, and bashing your knee caps into cabinet handles is about my worst danger. Maybe a bruise a week, maybe every other week. But now five or six a week?? And they are GIANT, spreading out further than I have ever seen. And it takes less pressure to bruise up. I carried a 24 pack of bottled water under my arm from the driveway to my room, and that night I had about a dozen small, spotted bruises along my inner forearm from the puckered edge of the sealed plastic seam. I looked like a needle junkie! Not cool.
    I also saw spontaneous red spots showing on my legs. Perhaps two at a time, they come and go in a couple of days or up to three weeks. Not razor burn from shaving, these are under the skin, smooth vivid maroon spots, pin sized to 2 mm. Very strange, painless, not itchy.
    Also, my left ankle swells every single day. It ranges from barely noticeable puffiness to ankle bones are flush with the swelling. My right ankle swells about half the time as the left. It really depends on how much I am on my feet for the day.

This is about 75% swollen. Trust me, my ankles are WAY way cuter than this! There is no pain with it though, and I'm grateful. Also in the picture is one of the bigger maroon spots I developed. That one has already faded almost completely. The swelling and spots and bruising I first noticed in early August.

One happy thing is my walking and jogging seems not to be a factor with my ankles, neither good nor bad. I see no difference, but at least I am not being held back because of it. I have been steadily working on stamina, and go about 12-20 miles per week, and try always to increase my time or distance. I am very pleased with my increase in muscle and I can tell very much so, having my blood pressure in check, I can go much further and work out harder than in the past, prior to meds. I have a pretty good jogging buddy now, Ringo a white German Shepherd, but he can turn into a drag ass sometimes....ok, every time. He hits his "not going faster than a trot" wall at some point. I have not taken him over past a 4 mile trip. I am skeptical. But he is happy and willing and I love having an extra set of ears and eyes with me. My only current disappointment with my jogging is my resting heart rate has shown no change at all. That does bum me out some. It is staying in the 70 beats per minute range. It really should be much better than that, so odds are I will be turning my attention to it soon.

In addition to overall health, I have added home made sauerkraut to the entire family's diet. If I can work it in the meal, raw being even more beneficial, I will. Along with homemade buttermilk, these are a great source of probiotics. I have known people who only use yogurt or acidophilus supplements after a round of an antibiotic, but also some use it for daily digestive health, and making buttermilk and sauerkraut at home makes the cost very small. And insofar as the salt content of sauerkraut, I use a teaspoon and half for a one quart jar, and I can live with that lol. No problem, and you can eat it with almost anything.
    I go back to the doctor in two weeks, he wants to check my cholesterol again, and also my platelet level to see if there is an explanation for the bruising and swelling beyond the Lisinopril. My hunch is, it's the medicine, and I don't think I can let that stand, if so. But, we will see!

A few days in

A few days in, using what seems for now to be my official meds, I am doing consistently well. On Sunday, I walked 1/3 of a mile. For the old me, that's nothing. For the recovering me, that was a mountain, lol. I walked until I was shaky and feeling barfy, checked my distance, came straight in the house and checked my BP, which was 134/84. At that moment I felt like I could really get my life back. I have checked off my other smaller goals, to get to this very one goal I wanted. The next day I walked 2/3 of a mile, feeling much more sturdy and BP was 128/80. DELIGHT!
That very same day I went through vids on youtube looking for yoga, and my favorite yoga gal www.youtube.com/user/sadienardini  had what I needed. She has four killer weight loss yoga videos I have used for over two years, and they are excellent. You feel like a million bucks for the rest of the day. She is very knowledgeable and addresses so many real life obstacles I have been nothing but impressed with her technique and safety. The vids I like for my needs right now are two Strength Yoga for Beginners and one Yoga for Runners.
I went hunting on my droid phone for a diet app. As the nausea left, my appetite came roaring back. I love my food. I enjoy cooking and have craved nothing but an aged steak and a rock lobster tail all week. Plus any and all cake with gobs of frosting. PLUS some garlic parmesan wings from Wing Street and a pound of fries. I am not indulging, yet! Poor me, right? I WANT EVERYTHING. So, caution sets in my brain. Lisa, do you want to gain back fat or muscle??? I found an app called My Diet Diary. It has many options for gaining, maintaining or loosing weight, lifestyle, exercise, etc. They have many foods in their data base so if they don't have exactly what you are looking for you can come close. It offers a  product code scanner, I haven't tested it yet. This app wins for me because, well, it's FREE, plus as you enter food over the day it will tell you how many calories you consumed that are from carbs, fats and proteins. I love that! It more than covers the basics and is still user friendly. 
As long as my BP stays nice, I won't be going to the doctor again until September. I have two months to get strong and I am crossing my fingers perhaps by then I can drop one out of two BP meds. I am still only taking one half of the newest one, and my BP is staying beautiful all day. I plan to set an alarm for 3 am for a week and take my night time BP, so I can check if the med I take in the evenings is doing it's job. I want to be thorough :)

Good Bye, Hydrochlorothiazide !

Good Bye, Hydrochlorothiazide ! Wednesday, having talked myself into giving my new med a full seven days trail before I wussed out and called my doctor.....I wussed out, and called my doctor. Five days in, I couldn't take it anymore. On top of feeling like scum on a boot, I lost five pounds in five days from nausea, and after the first two days of showing improvement in my blood pressure? It climbed right back up! The last morning I took that med, a couple hours later I was at 121/99.
You see? My bottom number is more stubborn than a mule. I think from feeling sick and terrible, I was becoming increasingly stressed. The med did show it could work, but apparently it wasn't able to conquer plain old feeling like CRAP stress :-)
I was taking the ACE blocker diuretic (lisinopril hydrochlorothiazide) combo pill at first for two weeks, and called mercy! Was then switched to the calcium blocker (amlodipine besylate) then had the diretic (hydrochlorothiazide) from the original lisinopril combo pill added to my regime.
Now all that's out with only plain old lisinopril added to the calcium blocker now. I took HALF a lisinopril last night, oh yes, I am chicken now! Well, no headache, no nausea, I was getting my hopes up, yay! then.....INSOMNIA strikes in the dead of night.
Bummer! But that's ok! I can take this lisinopril/insomina/zombie pill in the morning, and my amlodipine besylate at night.  My blood pressure is  108/82 right now and I am smiling, because aside from feeling incrementally dizzy, having the very smallest feeling of tightening in my chest, and the first nights insomnia fun, no other side effects have yet to appear. And the ones I have are nothing compared to what I have experienced with the other med on my best day.
All this, along with my baby aspirin. T\he doctor was very interested if I was sticking with the baby asprin, I am, I am! I take a small, tiny coated pill...it's so small I fear I haven't swallowed it each night and fish around my cheeks with the tip of my tongue to check. Once this bottle is finished, I am buying regular true blue baby aspirin. It will dissolve right in my mouth, so no more praying to the willow bark gods it made it down the hatch. And the pay off is better, who doesn't like orange flavored baby aspirins?

ONE more trip

ONE more trip to the doctor later, I have a new medication to add to my current one. Hydrochlorothiazide.....and no! I don't like it. What a teeny tiny itty bitty pill that packs a punch like an elephant! Nausea, AGAIN, oh yes, it's back. Racing heart beat, dizziness, weakness, what the hell? I take it in the morning and what a fun ride for the next 4-6 hours. Food doesn't help dilute it's power either, I've tried. The very bright, and only good side so far? From day one my blood pressure has been very close to normal running at 113-117 for the top number and 84-88 for the bottom. This is fantastic, yes. The suck factor was I felt to horrid to even be happy! This morning, I took half a dose, and will take the second half when I go to bed. Simple escape is all I am thinking about at this point. It is a very small 12.5 mg pill that brings a mountain of misery to my body. I would never of thought such an innocent, baby pink pill would be so sinister. Surprisingly enough, half a dose brought on exactly half the side effects, almost freakishly perfectly half the power. Didn't expect that either, what an odd medication. I have every single full hope these negative effects will go away very soon.
I'm sticking with my added diet items easily enough. And my teas are morphing still, I am trying to find how I like and prefer to make my combos and drink it. I am using this week, a tea from Tazo as my base, instead of black or white tea. With one bag of Tazo, I add four or five white tea bags, and my hibiscus tea goes straight into the pot. When the brew is finished, I turn the heat off and let the hibiscus flowers sit there in the hot tea pot and steep. Add it then to a pitcher with more water and this gives me a gallon of tea. I make my tea in a 12 cup coffee maker I use just for tea. None of these teas are fermented, like black tea, so I have not found the desire to add sugar at all, just lemon. Lemon being part of that "things I add to my diet as much as possible" list. It works great.
Celery...don't get me started! I did alright enough eating that stuff, and believe it or not, when eaten in such insane large portions, I felt pretty darn good! The sad story is, the last bite I ate I had to go all Fear Factor on it and gag it down while chanting IT'S OK....YOU CAN DO IT....BE CALM, LISA! And ever since then every time I open the fridge and see that celery staring right back at me, I run away. I will persevere, I just need to go retrieve my courage out from under a rock first.

Googling

Googling one stalk of celery, so I will eat precisely two stalks only and no more, comes up with...a stalk is a stalk, so I'm screwed. Celery! Ick! I did buy some natural peanut butter to choke it down with, so I will prevail, I am sure. And my low fat dairy is on the  premises, which is yogurt, and I love yogurt! No harm there. I am not an avocado fan, but I can eat one or two a month, and I have one staring at me now, sitting on my counter becoming ripe. I will mix it will some chilies and GLOB it on some chicken, and dare it to taste bad.
My blood pressure taken twice a day is looking great on the top number, very steady in the 120's. My bottom number is still mid 90s and sometimes up to 101. I go back to the doctor in 2 weeks, hopefully that will improve beforehand.
I've experimented with my tea, and instead of combining them, I have three separate pitchers. The hibiscus tea, like I said, is relaxing, but I was napping all the time! So, I've moved that to my bedtime while I read or surf the net. I am all for naps right now, if I am sleepy I go for it, this body has had a horrible past two months and needs to heal some, but it was excessive. I LOVE white tea!!! I've always liked green tea and what a life saver it was during pregnancies, it soothed my nausea a lot. Having never tried white tea, I'm surprised it  feels even more cozy in my tummy. So good, I am concerned I will run up a bill on it. I must pace myself.
I am only checking my blood pressure twice a day for now. I can't see the need to go hard core on it yet, when  the more important goal to me is watching and make sure it doesn't go and stay high again. Once everything looks right, I will bring my exercise back, along with my usual house chores and monitor BP at least three times a day. I will gain much information, I am looking forward to it! I've been on the new meds for only six days. I am so hopeful no more tinkering with it is needed, if given a little more time. The doctor has put me on one baby aspirin a day, which I DO take, but I have read some studies on it that show some conflicting reports. I will bring those up at my next appointment, to double check. Along with some red raspberry leaf I take, this is not to much to handle. Yes, I could use red raspberry leaf tea lol, but I have enough liquids in my life right now, God bless my bladder ;-) Amen.

Second Trip

I made my second trip to the doctor and now am on amlodipine besylate 10 mg. What a headache, literally. The kind of headache that feels like cold, searing, liquid metal in your brain, and you are very still in bed wanting to kick you legs but you just lay there breathing in and out, praying for sleep. Yes, that kind of headache lol. Good news is on the other medication, THAT headache lasted three days and it was followed by a smaller daily headache, never ceasing. This one though, perhaps that one headache was all I will have, I can feel the barest hint of one. I did wait until the final seconds of falling asleep to take my second pill last night, I think that helped me escape the worst.

My teas came in the mail! Hibiscus tea, wow. Siphons the tension right out of your bones. What a nice feeling after all this stress! My first day of tea and new meds I was ecstatic , my blood pressure was 110/80 and had the very best nights sleep I've had in weeks. Today I am at 129/101. That top number is responding nicely, but the bottom one...how stubborn can you be? 

Good new from the doctor, I can cut this pill in half if i wish, using my home blood pressure monitor as a guide. I have official permission! My monitor was very accurate. Two points off on the top number and only one off on the bottom. I can trust this thing, I must only guard against user error.

My tea brewing is still in it's infancy, and so far I brew a half gallon of caffeine free black tea and a half gallon of hibiscus, then mix the two in one pitcher. I am using about 1/4 cup of hibiscus petals? It is hard to say because they are big in size, not powdered. If I crushed them I think it would measure around three tablespoons. My white tea, I have not added yet, but today will use four tea bags with  my black/hibiscus tea. The taste of the hibiscus tea? Tart, but not too tart, not at all. It does have an hidden layer of some flavor.... reminds me of a cow pasture, don't ask me why! And I really don't want to  know. I don't want to think of cow patties! I like the taste better cold, but the warm fuzzy feeling is more noticeable when I drink it hot. After two days of being off the  lisinopril, I have noticed greatly the vague upset stomach I had is gone, more or less, and food tastes better. Did that med mess with my taste and smell? Or did my unhappy tummy just put me off food? I am not sure, but I lean towards the med messing with my senses, yes.

Insofar as foods, this week I will add the dreaded celery, plus avocado and yogurt. I can see adding all these foods could become overwhelming, I am striving for some balance. 

This is only THE first official week, I have time.

Hours and hours

Hours and hours and searching, reading, list making, list editing, and finally satisfaction with my end result.

Things I eat regularly
broccoli
spinach
potatos
tomatos
garlic
onions

Things I eat sometimes
beans, any,  black beans and lima beans most suggested
bananas
olive oil
oranges

Things I eat rarely
celery
oatmeal
berries
low fat dairy (yogurt, skim milk, low fat cheese)
sweet potatos
unsalted sunflower seeds
apples
grapefruit
dark chocolate 50-70% cacao
lemon
avocado

Tea to try
Hibiscus

Dandelion leaf

Passion flower

White tea

RESEARCH
potasium, maganese, nitrate, potasium foods, etc

Other Stuff
Oregano
Cardamon
Hawthorne
Yarrow
Linden
Tummeric
Cinnamon

I was pleased to learn some of the most suggested foods I already do eat often. Some of the items I found are outside my budget or availability, but seriously, it was like three or four things, so no crying over it. Cold water fish YUM! Budget say NO. Family of seven here, and I spend $5-$10 on meat for one dinner for all of us, I can’t spend $8 on one portion of super delicious seafood just for me. Yes, I’ve wished many times I live by the coast!

I was excited to get my home blood pressure monitor yesterday. Not so excited to see my readings consistently at 148/105. Is this accurate? I will find out at the doctors office. It is consistent? Seems to be so far. I’m a stickler for reading instruction manuals, and this monitor has many settings I wish to use, but for now, I can’t wrap my head around anything. It will have to wait, but the basics are easy. The monitor is an Omron BP785 which won me over by having the most sensors, won’t give you a foul ball for detecting an irregular heart beat, either. I tend to have some annoying heart flubbing moments. Reading many reviews of people getting errors from some other monitors if their heart does some gymnastics, but not with this model, was encouraging. The memory for data is enough for me, also. I genuinely hope this sucker becomes a trusted loved one, but he’s still in the friend zone for now.

I also found some hibiscus tea and after more HOURS of reading reviews and inspecting products, this highly rated, sometimes possessing questionable content tea, it is the one I want. Out of all I am doing and testing, this one thing is the one thing I am most excited to try. My hopes are very high for this tea. The dandelion leaf tea I doubt I will try, I think it’s great but maybe not what I need specifically. The white tea, yes I will for sure. Proven in testing to be anti inflammatory and it wins over other teas in trials. Inflammation is the root of all evil, if you ask me. Well, it’s the symptom of whatever evil is lurking, but it wreaks havoc on your health, inside and out. The passion flower tea I will try in passing, right now from all my reading, it’s all about the hibiscus and white tea for me right now.

All the foods in my list which I eat sometimes, I can easily bump up more in my weekly and daily diet, and will make a more conscious and deliberate action to do so. Celery? Ew. But I’ll freaking eat it. Recommended four stalks a day….but, I know myself, I will start with just two a day and will probably stay at two a day. I could take pills of this stuff of course, but why? I don’t want to pop 40 pills a day of supplements when the real thing is right in front of me. I even dodged taking daily prenatal vitamins during my pregnancies. Taken daily prenatal pills I felt like CRAP all day and had scary dreams, nightmares, insomnia and night sweats. No thank you. I compromised by taking them twice a week and eating very well as usual, and my blood work was always spot on, so I was reassured I did right for myself. It’s a supplement, to add what you don’t have. I’ll think happy cow thoughts of chewing cud, and eat the stupid and potentially life saving celery.

Oatmeal? My kids eat oatmeal every morning, and now so does mommy! Yay for mommy….yay for mommy trying to stay alive and healthy. Oatmeal is not my favorite. I will eat it semi-happily now, and that cinnamon on the list, I just toss it in the oatmeal. Recommended 3 teaspoons a day for lowering blood pressure? That’s not gonna happen in my real life, but I will ADD it to my diet in some amount. I read some thing about it MUST be grated from a cinnamon stick or it doesn’t count! Um, ok, I don’t scare that easily and I have some ever so lovely tasting saigon cinnamon in my pantry. That’ll do until further notice.

Low fat dairy? I can do the yogurt, I love yogurt. Low fat milk, low fat cheese? No way, and don’t mess with cheese like that. Cheese is to be respected. Yogurt it is, then!

No exercising added yet, I can’t. And that makes me a little sad. I can barely walk across my house, much less take a 2 mile stroll, but it’s coming my way. And I can’t wait to get back out there. Yoga? Downward facing dog just isn’t on my list of things to do when your entire head feels like exploding from a simple sneeze, but I will have it back before too long. Although, jokingly I’ve said I will search youtube for some geriatric yoga. The stuff I was doing was a bit intense, so I will go towards EASY, simple, nice old people yoga. I love that two-feet-solid on the ground balanced feeling I have all day afterwards. My new parred down goal is simple alignment and smooth, happy, relaxed muscles. Happy body, less stress, less inflammation, yay! I am getting ahead of myself lol, but I miss it.

Onward, upward, till the goal ye win, dadgummit.

Pursue the Goal

I have been sick for 2 months. Every day, 8 weeks. I was mistaken thinking another bout of vertigo had come to visit and would pass. There is not much you can do for vertigo, beyond treating the symptoms and waiting for your body to solve the issue. Dizziness, fatigue, feeling faint, weak, tired, confusion, etc. Week five brought small improvements, but it wasn’t the same as my previous experiences.  Two weeks later, I worsened and went to the doctor. No vertigo, no anemia, no low blood sugar, no thyroid ups or downs…but high blood pressure. 158/109

I did not know. Silent killer indeed.

I  was unaware my blood pressure medication was no longer fighting the good fight for me.  I was using verapamil 240 mg, a calcium-channel blocker and am now on lisinopril-hctz 10-12.5 mg, an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor.

I do not smoke. I drink very little. As of 8 weeks ago, I walked/jogged 6-10 miles per week and very much enjoy rounds of yoga. I eat healthy meals. Enjoy fast food maybe eight times a year. I drink one cup of coffee or less a day, consume plenty of  tea and water, and cokes rarely (soda/pop/cola for you non-southerners, I know you’re out there;-) I live in North Texas, I am 5′ 3”, weigh 130 lbs, 33 years old, female, and I have had five children. I am a stay at home mom, my life is medium to low stress any given day.

My youngest is 8, the toddler years are gone. Trust me, this IS low stress in my book.

I do not have much I can take OUT of my life and diet to help lower my blood pressure. Really, beyond switching to decaf tea, which I do drink many glasses of a day, I do not see what I can remove. That makes it plain to me I must add. Add foods, exercises, herbal tea,  I don’t know. What else is there? I am going to find out.

I looked at the DASH diet. Honestly? Not for me, my normal diet does not look that far off from the guidelines. It’s not completely off the table, no. I want to add things first, not change things into strictness and rules. I want to test and incorporate  into my diet items that I can easily make peace with, on all levels.

My next doctors appointment is in a week, and by then I should have a home blood pressure monitor I will take with me to test for accuracy. Until then, lots of research while I can get back on my feet. Side effects of high blood pressure followed by the side effects of the medication have left my productivity strangled.