Livongo Blood Pressure Program

I’ve had high blood pressure for most of my life. It started with headaches. I inherited it from both of my parents. As a young adult it took a very long time to find the right combination of medications to finally get it right while suffering from many side effects. So I’ve been checking my blood pressure at home since that time. And of course, without fail, whenever I go to the doctors office it always reads a lot higher than when I take it at home. The same thing happened to my mother. My blood pressure has been somewhat stable now and I don’t take it as often as I used to. I’ve been getting constant reminders from my health insurance company that there is a free Livongo blood pressure management program available. I’ve been ignoring the notices all this time but for whatever reason decided to give it a try. So I signed up and the “kit” arrived last week. There is an app that it connects to so there is a record of the measurements and the Apple heart app can be linked to it so activity is connected to the pressure. And there is a diet planning guide that I haven’t really looked at. Apparently you keep a food diary and can upload photos of what you are eating. In the end the choice is yours to have coaches you can connect to if you like, or in my case I’ll probably just use it to get a baseline and occasional reading to bring to the doctor’s office to prove my pressures are relatively normal in my home setting. Another feature is that it will let you know if you have an irregular heart beat, which could indicate a cardiac irregularity. So in the end it’s a nice thing to have given my family history. I’ve always been on top of it since I was diagnosed. But now the app and the trends can offer some reassurance. 

Measupro Wrist Blood Pressure Cuff

High blood pressure runs in my family. I have been taking prescription medicine for it for over thirty years. It took forever to get on a regimen that had the least amount of side effects. Anytime I start a prescription, I always get the side effects - it doesn't matter what it is. I have used a typical arm blood pressure cuff from Walgreens for as long as I can remember. It's still working after all these years! But someone told us about this little wrist blood pressure cuff that was used to track hypotension events. It was much easier to wear this and check the reading right away when one feels lightheaded. I do have orthostatic hypotension anyway, and when I started taking statins I almost fell on my face from dizziness. So now I started to track my blood pressure more regularly to see if there are fluctuations. This little gadget from Measupro works quite well. It even has a little carry case, an option for another person to use it, and stores up to sixty readings. When I take the reading I add the data to the health app on the iPhone so I can show the doctor on my next visit. I'm sure the iPhone has an app that integrates all this. All I know is that my blood pressure readings have been unusually low lately... Ever since I retired (!) But the readings are always a lot higher when I go see the doctor. I'm sure it is somewhere in between. So if you need to track your vital signs with any regularity, this is a good way to do it! 

Zocor, Dizziness, and Blood Pressure Pills

I used to marvel at all the pills my parents took. When they came to visit us in Milwaukee, they brought zip lock bags filled with bottles of medicines.  Now I am not far behind. Right before I retired, my cardiologist recommended taking a low dose statin, given my family history and test results. The problem is - I have a tendency to have adverse side effects from most prescriptions. It took many months to finally get me on a blood pressure regimen that worked. Only a few weeks after taking Zocor, I woke up to a spinning room and extreme dizziness that I didn't get over for most of the day. I wasn't sure if it was from a combination of statins and diuretics, but stopped taking it immediately. I also used to take my blood pressure routinely, but quit that quite some time ago. But I got out my Walgreens BP machine and saw that my blood pressure was significantly lower than typical, and on top of that I have orthostatic hypotension. So now we are changing the statin to another brand and will see what happens. Maybe because I don't work anymore my blood pressure is lower? I don't think so. But it is unnerving to get these side effects. Now my cabinet really does look like my parents. Some of us are just plain lucky! The pills are powerful and effective, but so are the side effects.