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Avatar universal

Blood pressure 176/117 ? Chest pain?

40yrs male. 5'11' 210# work construction and lift weights
Never smoked, drink my be two glasses of alcohol a year.
BP is usually normal, started having headaches from a pinched nerve in my neck (occipital neuralgia) and from my first dr visit for that my blood pressure has gradually ramped up.  Only meds I'm taking are gabapentin, flexeril and tylenol.  Non of which are suppose to mess with blood pressure.

I have been to my dr and was put on hydrochlorothiazide 25mg daily, that was 3 days ago.  Anybody else that uses this, how long before it started to do it's thing?

Also, kind of a scary question, I've searched but get the same old answer.  But from anybody that might of had an issue, what did your chest pain feel like?  
I'm 40 and have worked hard all my life so pretty much every thing hurts every once in a while.
But while driving, I'v been having random pain that last about 20-30 seconds.  Feels kinda like somebody is pushing their knuckle into my sternum.  
There is plenty of Dr.s and Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners and EMT that know about my pressures and seem to not think much about it.  But I know if I mention this pain everything will go nuts.  I have great insurance so that's not a problem.  Just don't know what to do.  All I seem to think about right now is my wife and kids and whether or not I feel something that might not be therw..

Attached is my blood pressures for the past few days.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for the reply.
I go back to the dr. in a week and will have a list of things to ask when I go this time.  
The past day it has lowered a bit, probably averaging 150/95.  
The reasoning for the water pill was since the first visit for the headache I went from 197# to about a max of 217#.  Partly because when I feel bad I eat.lol and first they gave me Prednisone, and then the following couple weeks I got Kenelo40 injection near the occipital nerve.  Hoping it'll dump some of the steroid caused water and lower the pressure?
As far as exercise, I do lift weights pretty regular (took a 4 week break while I had bad  headaches) but in the last week I've got a few in with moderate weight to keep pressure in the head down.   And for example after doing 2 sets of 10 deadlifts @265# my heart rate was 145, but my blood pressure was 120/60.   Checked it many times after strenuous effort and it was always lower.   Set and chill awhile and it would creep back up.

I will follow up on here after the next visit.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Hi There. You say you have good insurance cover. Its time to use it. Im not a doctor or medical expert, but i will try help if i can. Here we go.The numbers that you have recorded are mainly a bit on the high side. Its a bit unusual in these circumstances that a doc has started the BP meds without also investigating further? Go right back to the doctor, get an ECG (Heart Trace) also get an Echo, its a painless ultrasound test. This will show the structure of your heart and also show how the valves and heart are working. The echo is a good test to calculate your heart EF. This is normally between 55 % & 70%. Sometimes as bp gets higher, it can reduce a bit. You need a full set of bloods also. Im surprised that they have not done a 24 ABPM test on you?  I would be considering an angiogram test in the medium term too, especially if you have pain. Do you have pain on exertion? or going up stairs etc? The med you got is a water tablet (Diuretic) and it would start to kick in after a week probably. (The trips to the loo will start day one)  The problem with high bp is the lack of symptoms. But eventually if it keeps very high, it can begin to cause problems like heart failure. This will over time have symptoms. So do something about it today, when its easy enough to bring under control. Keep us posted
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Avatar universal
Request an EKG. It won't hurt but it will give you the answers you need.
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