The palpitation was an uncomfortable experience. It felt like your heart is hammering out of rhythm deep inside you. Your limbs became weak and the slight tremor was troubling. I thought about Michael J Fox. Parkinson's Disease sounded like a dreadful sword hanging over my head.
On this day, about a week ago I suddenly felt very uncomfortable close to midnight. I could not sleep and was feeling agitated and restless. My BP reading was 179/77. It continued to rise fifteen minutes later.
Alarmed, we headed for the Emergency Room at our friendly neighborhood private hospital. They took my reading. It was now 206/100.
The doctor who attended to me was a young chirpy man in his early thirties. As he went about studying my readings and chatting cheerfully, I began to calm down. "Doesn't look like a heart attack, Madam. Don't worry. Its more like an anxiety attack," he said, after listening to how I got to be where I was.
He arranged for a blood test to rule out the heart attack, took my ECG, gave me a 10mg Norvasc, a tranquilizer and something for acid reflux and sent me home.
Two days later, the palpitation began again. This time I set off to see my old GP,. After a few quick questions, we arrived at the problem.
During a routine medical check-up with the doctor at the public hospital, I was taken off Amlodipine 2.5mg because "the dosage is so small it is insignificant." This brought the palpitation and my BP became unstable. My GP reinstated the amlodipine and we are watching to see what happens next.
The moral of this story?
When you're on medication for high blood pressure and things are looking swell, don't rock the boat!
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