sj, I have zero advice, but I wish you and ltc much good luck.

Steph, my primary doctor and I are wrangling about my BP. It's a little high -- usually around 135/90 when I check at home, higher at the doctor's office probably because of anxiety. He wants to treat aggressively and get it down to 110/80 (which it has never been). I can't stand the meds; we've tried five different kinds and they all make me feel like hammered shit, and give me painful swollen feet. I want to deal with it with exercise and diet (and supplements, which he doesn't believe in, but there's Science). I don't know if I should Deal with the side effects of the meds, if moderately high BP is as dangerous as he says it is, or if I should listen to my pharmacist, who was discreetly amazed that the doc was treating moderately high BP with such strong meds. The meds didn't even bring it down as low as he wanted, anyway. Right now, I'm not taking the meds and I'm trying to get it down on my own, but I can't shake the nagging anxiety that I might Have A Stroke because I couldn't deal. Do you have any insight as to whether my doctor is right that moderately high BP is really dangerous and warrants aggressive treatment?

signed, Another Thing to be Anxious About, Pass the Valium

Teppy, sorry for the doctor annoyance.

I know I'm being a special snowflake, and the reason I have to go in is a bureaucracy that requires every patient to be processed the same way. It's just so inefficient, for them as well as me. They could use my appointment time to see someone who's actually sick. (OTOH, maybe the doctor appreciates an easy appointment so she can catch a break for 5 minutes.) And I do need to run errands in addition to the doctor, so I'm not really losing 2 hours of my day; I just wanted to whine about the inefficiency of it all.

(And here is where I confess that my IBS has been flared up horribly for a month, and I'm going to take this required doctor visit as an opportunity to see if there's anything new in the world of IBS treatment. So the required appointment is actually probably a good thing. And yet I whine and moan about it AND let everyone else witness my stream of consciousness about it.)

(Seriously, this is so weird, and I can't find any clinical data on it, only anecdotal reports -- for at least the past 3 years, my IBS flares up horribly in March/April. There's some seasonal component to it -- maybe a histamine thing, because of all the stuff that starts blooming? -- but there are no clinical data out there about a seasonal IBS pattern, just lots of message boards where people talk about it happening to them, too. Super weird.)

He wants to treat aggressively and get it down to 110/80 (which it has never been).

That's a worthy goal, but a little extreme given that it's never been that low. The general guideline is that normal is 120/80 (ish). And 135/90 isn't even considered high, but it is borderline high.

And I'll tell you what my doctor said when my BP was 140/something -- that's officially high BP, but nowhere near stroke level. As soon as I realized he wasn't worried about me having a stroke, I stopped worrying about that possibility.

So, IANAD, but you're not going to have a stroke. I'm curious why your doctor is going after it aggressively. Maybe he considers that being proactive.

I guess I'll ask the diabetic counselor on Friday.

Absolutely. There are many vegetarian pregnant people! I never ate meat or poultry when pregnant (or before or after), and the doctors had no issue with that at all. My proteins were beans, nuts, and cheese for the most part although I ate fish often too. I did the ricotta with stevia and cocoa as my fake chocolate mousse thing. Stevia isn't nasty and chemically and my fake sugar of choice.

Fortunately the sugar was pretty easily controlled by diet for me. Remember it is only for a short while and you get such a lovely reward at the end. And I ain't talking cookies here! Baby!

eta: DH gave up diet soda last summer and is now drinking sweet tea that he makes with stevia.

Thank you very much, Steph, that sets my mind at ease. Along with my pharmacist saying basically the same thing. I might try to fidn another doctor. I like this guy personally, but as a doctor, he seems to be totally focused on my BP and my weight. I've asked him three times to do a complete thyroid workup, because I have every single symptom of hypothyroidism and it runs in my family, and he flat refuses to do it. He won't even do the test. He said even if it was low, he wouldn't treat it. Hyperaggressive on the BP and completely indifferent on the thyroid, I don't get it.

Refusing to diagnose or treat hypothyroidism, this isn't about your health. If he were interested in treating a major problem aggressively, that could be about your health. But he isn't. He wants to aggressively treat a modest problem with medications that make you feel like crap. What is his motivation? Health, YOUR health, is not on his agenda. Pushing you to do things that make you feel crappy for no good reason? Sounds like punishment to me.

I've asked him three times to do a complete thyroid workup, because I have every single symptom of hypothyroidism and it runs in my family, and he flat refuses to do it. He won't even do the test. He said even if it was low, he wouldn't treat it.

What. The. Shit. Find a new doctor. That's not actual patient care; that's arrogance.

I'm currently waiting at the doctor's office and wondering how long I'll have to wait for my 5-minute appt.

Can you tell I'm cranky? Sheesh.

Thanks for the objective viewpoint, guys. I'm looking for another doctor.

Definitely find a new doctor. Mine was a lot like Teppy's; at 135 she monitored it, but didn't recommend any medications. Once it got to 140, I bought my own wrist monitor and she was happy with that, because white coat effect did affect me to some degree. As long as my BP was reasonable in the morning before activity, she said I was fine. When I lost a lot of weight, it went back to normal for me: anywhere between 105/70 to 120/80. I still worry about it a little because both my parents were on BP meds by the time they were in their 50s or 60s and neither of them were what I would consider overweight.