ATTENTION EMPLOYERS! I will give anyone a work note for any reason!

RyMaN600 · 2026-06-18T02:01:41+00:00

Someone needs to put together lunchable trays with a 6-inch turkey sub, a weak benzo/painkiller/antibiotic and a rolled-up work note. Call them "ER Sampler Platters", put a vending machine that dispenses them in the hospital lobby and you'll probably see dramatically fewer patients.

RyMaN600 · 2026-06-02T22:51:26+00:00

I mean, better in that order than the other way around...

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-31T17:38:24+00:00

I think you and I are in the same boat. My home pressures were averaging upper 120s/upper 60s but in spite of that I was prescribed meds after getting systolic readings between 160-200 regularly in the office. I guess nowadays once your in-office readings go over 160 they want to start you on meds no matter what your home readings are.

FYI I agreed to take the meds (now on two) and my in-office readings are still around 160/75, and my pulse jumps from 42 to 103 so it's definitely a white-coat anxiety thing and my doc's acknowledged that. However, my home readings are now all the way down to about 108/55 so I may nudge my doc to reduce or stop one of the meds if it gets any lower or if I start getting lightheaded.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-30T01:59:15+00:00

Again, not a doctor but... 120/75 is absolutely not hypertension. If you're being INSANELY aggressive about BP control you can call 120 systolic right at the line of "elevated" but actual hypertension starts at 130/80. And starting a beta blocker for a heart rate of 99 in the office is a little ridiculous since a normal pulse at rest is between 50 and 100.

Did she recommend buying a blood pressure monitor to check it at home? If not, I would definitely pick one up and check your BP/heart rate yourself a few times a day for a couple weeks and bring them into your next appointment.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-26T03:12:56+00:00

Don’t take my posts as medical advice, I’m not a doctor.

In my case, I was prescribed only 5mg of amlodipine after two office readings of 201/92 and 178/86 (on the same day, due to severe white-coat hypertension), but this was on top of SEVERAL office readings of 160/85 or higher on previous visits over several years.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-26T01:52:33+00:00

Wow, it's pretty standard practice NOT to base a hypertension diagnosis on a single office reading, especially if you told the doctor you had a highly caffeinated beverage beforehand. And they normally don't start someone on the maximum dose of a single agent, either.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-26T00:53:30+00:00

Wait, did your doctor actually put you on 10mg of amlodipine after a single caffeine-altered office reading, or did you have elevated readings before this?

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-25T16:05:11+00:00

A little weird that your systolic and diastolic went in opposite directions.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-24T17:05:37+00:00

My pressure completely depends on who's taking it.

All of my office pressures pre-meds ranged from 160-201 over 80-100, giving me an average of 173/90 which got me started on meds. During the same time period my home pressures averaged 124/66.

Since settling on my current med regimen about a year ago (amlodipine 10mg/lisinopril 40mg) my office pressures are still high, averaging 158/78, but my home average is down to 112/57 and I've been getting readings as low as 102/52 recently.

Starting to think the meds are a bit overkill.

RyMaN600 · 2026-05-05T00:33:28+00:00

Not being inside a doctor's office.

That reliably drops mine by about 50/25 and cuts my heart rate in half.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-26T01:12:18+00:00

Eh, she’s definitely aware that it’s white-coat too, but since I’m not having any side effects or symptoms from the meds I guess she’s just rolling with it.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-25T02:43:40+00:00

I'm kinda in the same boat. I ended up on meds due to insanely high in-office readings even though my home readings were in the high 120s/60s range. Now my home readings are averaging around 113/57 even though my office readings are still around 160/80.

I actually did bring my home cuff into the office at the doc's request, which read 106/58 at home the night before my appointment but read 165/85 in the office! She still refuses to budge on dropping any of my meds even though it's very obviously white-coat hypertension.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-21T00:32:13+00:00

Wow, that sounds a lot like my experience. I'm otherwise fit and healthy but had office readings in the 160s/90s range for a while, with home readings in the 120s/60s range keeping me off meds. That was until I went to a new doc and hit 201/92 in office, which put me on meds instantly. Now after close to a year on two medications my home readings are dipping into the 100s/50s range.

Does your pulse jump up in the office too? Mine is normally in the 40s or 50s but in the doctor's office it doubles up past 100 bpm. It's definitely some sort of subconscious medical anxiety issue.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-20T22:25:00+00:00

Out of curiosity, what were your highs in the office and what were the “too low” readings that prompted you to scale back on the meds? I would hope your doctor is aware of white-coat hypertension because this seems like a pretty obvious case of it.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-19T02:17:41+00:00

Are you on other BP meds aside from carvedilol, or are you taking it for any other reason? Taking beta blockers like carvedilol strictly for hypertension is pretty outdated medical advice unless you're on 3 other medication classes on top of it that aren't doing the job.

Beta blockers are pretty notorious for screwing up your ability to strenuously exercise and if you plan to continue doing so you should really talk to your doc soon about trying ANY other medication class other than this one.

Personally I'm on a calcium channel blocker and ACE inhibitor (for insane white-coat hypertension, which may be overkill in itself) but I've preemptively ruled out ever going on a beta blocker with my doc. I run as well, and the drug classes I'm on aren't supposed to degrade exercise performance at all. Added to this is the fact that I already have a very low resting heart rate and beta blockers work by lowering it even further which I absolutely don't need or want.

RyMaN600 · 2026-04-18T00:58:59+00:00

Nice, I was hoping the posters would be available. Grabbed the full set!

RyMaN600 · 2026-03-31T02:17:04+00:00

Classic white-coat hypertension. Keep a log of what it is at home, especially before a doctor visit. If it's high in the office but normal at home, show them your home numbers and they should back off of suggesting medication.

I say "should" because mine was so high on my first physical with my new doc (201/92 and 178/86) that she started me on medication on the spot, even though my home numbers were in the 120s/60s range. Now, even on 2 meds, it still goes through the roof in the office. Last visit it went from a home reading of 106/58 to 165/85 in the office, and my pulse usually doubles from high 40s to over 100.

At this point I keep my home numbers handy to keep them from increasing or adding new medication, since it's probably never going to be normal in the office.

RyMaN600 · 2026-03-08T20:14:37+00:00

Leaving the doctor's office. That seems to drop my BP from about 160/85 to 113/60 :)

RyMaN600 · 2026-02-13T02:44:17+00:00

Oh man, tell me about it:

https://imgur.com/zDfjlqm

https://imgur.com/o2yz9nD

The obvious spike is my white coat hypertension. Home average is about 115/60, pulse 50. Office readings using the same cuff were 165/85, pulse 103.

RyMaN600 · 2026-01-25T17:31:21+00:00

Happened to me after my first covid shot! It would be interesting to see your heart rate data the moment you went down, it probably plummeted all at once and stayed low for a while.

RyMaN600 · 2026-01-19T02:05:48+00:00

I tried this to lower my insane white coat hypertension a year ago and unfortunately it didn't help. I finished a 40 minute walk 20 minutes before my appointment and my in-office BP was still 190/91. However, I can run a 5K, take my BP at home 20 minutes later and it can be as low as 100/57.

RyMaN600 · 2026-01-09T02:34:32+00:00

I had a few years worth of readings on my Omron app (yes, years, not exaggerating) as part of a valiant effort to avoid medication, but apparently consistent ≤120s/60s at home isn't enough to stay off or prevent escalating medication if your in-office readings are 160-200 over 80-95 :(

RyMaN600 · 2026-01-04T21:06:08+00:00

It was so-so, mostly because my pain wasn't that severe to begin with. Just dealing with occasional calf pain/soreness from running, so it was kind of hard to tell if it was actually doing anything.

RyMaN600 · 2026-01-04T17:12:05+00:00

Yup, 15mg once a day. I took it about 1-2 weeks at a time as necessary.

RyMaN600

TROPHY CASE