Heart Monitor

Last night when taking my blood pressure before bed, I noticed a new icon on my blood pressure cuff. Apparently I have an irregular heartbeat. So, I went into Dr. Wilder and am now having my heart monitored for 24 hours. 

I'll be commenting against this post with events that occur while being monitored so that I can tell them what's going on, they gave me a little booklet to write it, like I won't lose that! 

Feel free to ignore all those comments.

Verapamil day 2: Developing a head ache.

I don't really know if people care about this level of detail but I do want to record it.  Is it easy to unsubscribe?

This morning my BP was the lowest I can recall it ever being.
   104/71
Heart rate
   81

I've had a low grade headache since I woke up. It's been getting stronger though and recently was enough for me to want to take Ibuprofen.  We shall see if it controls it or not.  It's not a permanent solution, but I have massage scheduled tomorrow and not all headaches are caused by meds... ;)

Sigh

4 meds.   Rrr.

New Med, day 1 (so far so good)

I have been asked to take Verapamil (120mg, once per day) for 3 months.  I have been very trepidatious about this because Verapamil is a Calcium Channel Blocker.  I've been on Norvasc before, which is also a Calcium Channel Blocker.  I only ever took Norvasc once.  It was horrible.  I had a completely incapacitating headache and felt like I was not likely to survive it.  We got me through it.  Dr Wilder (my primary who talked me through the first incident) assured me that Verapamil worked in a different enough way, that the same result was not likely.   

So, I was a little worried about starting the drug.  Nonetheless, last evening (Sunday), I started it.  

It felt rather odd after a few hours.  I was moving more slowly and deliberately than normal and wanted to be sure I took it easy.  The world didn't seem "quite right" though nothing hurt.  

This morning, my blood pressure was as low as I recall seeing it.  Pretty much right at normal.  Heart rate too.

I restarted the Metformin as well.  I noticed when I came off that a number of weeks ago, that my mental health was a lot better, but that my physical health was a lot worse.  So I'm trying to see if I can detect any changes in my mental state on restarting.  Of course this muddies the test a little and exact causality may be hard to determine. 

So far, I feel ok.  As the day wears on, we shall see.

Thanks for listening...

--Frank