GREAT news last Friday - all the tests that were run at the nephrology appointment were normal. No signs of kidney issues (which could cause high bp) and no indication of LVH (left ventricle hardening maybe?) at any rate, they were looking for thickening of the artery which would be the negative consequence of high blood pressure.
My calculus teacher in high school (Mr. Zimmerman - Central Academy - shout out!) always quoted "ours is not to do or die, ours is to ask the question why?". We always were challenged to understand why the proofs worked - it wasn't good enough to simply memorize them.
Because a curious, and data driven sort of person, I am really highly irritated that I may not know why Gavin's bp was high for a few weeks. Perhaps it was white coat hypertension, and he had lingering anxiety that something was wrong the next couple times the nurse checked it. Perhaps his diet was funky those weeks. Maybe he was a little dehydrated. Who knows? It's making me nuts.
Prior to this, he only had it checked once a year, then 5 times in 3 weeks. 3 of those times it was high, and 2 it was normal. Normal being subjective - the doctors thought it was normal, the school nurse thinks it's still on the high side. He may just be an outlier on the high side though.
At any rate, I'm considering getting a monitor and checking it several times a week for a while to get my own baseline. I'm not a hypochondriac, and believe me, I'm not trying to find problems where they don't exist. I just want to understand what his normal is. What if the high numbers are his normal and the low numbers were the anomaly? At this point we know nothing is wrong, and that's great, beyond great. The whole thing just has me puzzled, and I'm sort of innately driven to figure out the why.
1 comment:
Left ventricular hypertrophy.. (sorry, medical transcriptionist coming out.)
If Gavin had his blood pressure taking with his feet supported, or if the medical assistant didn't hold his arm appropriately, or if he had a particularly sodium-laden meal the day before, or if he had been active significantly before the testing or any number of things can lead to high blood pressure readings. That's why they went through all the special tests - to prove that he didn't have high blood pressure. It's unfortunately not an exact science. Any number of factors can sway a result.
But that being said - I got freaked when mine went high (it's been high since the preeclampsia and has not gone down) and went and got a home cuff and took my blood pressure at home. My doctor urged me NOT to do this. The stress of testing it regularly at home simply raised my blood pressure.
You may never find out why because there probably isn't one answer as to why. He'll always be at risk for pediatric hypertension because of his prematurity - and didn't he have a heart condition at birth?
In any event, the most important thing is that you're on top of it. I have no explanation as to why mine is elevated now. Is it the preeclampsia, family history, being overweight, past history of smoking? No one can say definitively. It's the one thing that annoys me about hypertension. It's as elusive as pneumonia.
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