I was admitted through our ER to a local hospital last week after 3 months of slowly resolving LC, In fact, I had my very 1st semisolid BM the day before I was admitted ** but the 100 days prior were brutal. I had been on Entocort for almost a month at that point. No-one knows whether that had anything to do with my BP problems and after 5 days, multiple Xrays, blood every 6 hrs, Cat scans of brain, abdomen, etc, a cardiac stress test followed by heart catheterization that all turned out essentially normal, we still have no real idea why my BP jumped from a normal of 120/80 (140/90 when pain levels are higher, but I never remember any reading higher than this, I hit 183/117 Sun am (feeling extremely lousy -- cold sweat, clammy skin, headache, agitation, red-flushed chest and face, then went down throughout the day as I checked it every 3 hours. Around 6 pm, I felt worse and checked again and it was 198/121 so I calles out insurance company 24-hr nurse who told me to hang up and call 911, which I did reluctantly. I was given an aspirin and observed for a few hours, then admitted. Mon, Tue and Wed were all full days of assorted tests. The slightly abnormal chemical cardiac stress test was attributed to swelling due to LC that put extra pressure on the heart because the cath showed ZERO blockages. So heart is OK, cholesterol under control, BP spiked, then has gone down. A 24-hr urine collection was done but results were negative for the specific condition the Hospitalist was considering based on my overall symptoms. However, I am not really fully at ease and am not certain this is really a clean bill of health. The GI doc there just asked if in my readings on the subject if I had read that sometimes it spontaneously resolves. I said yes and he said, "let's hope so!" The LC was essentially considered resolved and they focused on stroke and cardiac which fortunately were all negative. But something is giving me this body temperature regulation problem. I see my endocrinologist on Friday. I see her because during Tx for chronic back probLems my testosterone dropped to almost zero and they also discovered I do not now produce any HGH, which clearly explains why at age 58 I have osteoporosis already. I am on supplements for testosterone and HGH, take a now low dose of pain meds and Lyrica. I had to quit shaving also because my facial skin has started to slough off. I wanted to know more than my heart was OK ( I am very happy to hear that, to be sure) and had just told my wife the week prior that I just wanted to get all my doctors in one room with me holding the only key and they could not leave until we had an interdisciplinary discussion and a better idea of how to proceed. Each individual thing is bothersome, but to the doctors, not particularly serious, but I still have an unexplained inflammatory condition going on throughout my body --just recently showing up in colon. Am I paranoid, or should I push to look further? Whom? Endocrinologist? Rheumatologist? Any ideas??? I do feel substantially better and BP is back close to normal and I am cheching noy just every 2 weeks or so like before.
Thank you for any ideas or advice in advance,
Bob
5 Days in Hospital - no answers
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Hi Bob,
How frustrating! That was no fun at all. At least major things checked out OK, although it leaves you hanging when there is no actual answer.
How long have you been on the testosterone? I know that low testerone levels can lead to high blood pressure. Maybe your testosterone levels aren't up to normal yet. What is the problem with temperature regulation? Have your thyroid/adrenal glands been checked? I would think that the endocrinologist is a good idea, since you do have the problems with HGH and testosterone and temperature regulation.
Also, have you been under any increased physical/emotional stress recently? Were you feeling particularly anxious last weekend before your BP soared? It's like a vicious cycle - the BP starts to rise, which makes us feel awful and scares the s*** out of us, which causes even more anxiety and thus further increases the BP. Anxiety can certainly cause the type of episode you experienced and can be responsible for extreme spikes in BP.
Anyway, glad to hear that all seems to be settling down. Please keep us posted.
Love,
Polly
P.S. What a great idea about getting all the docs in one room! Of course, it should be the responsibility of your primary care doc to pull everything together and make sense of it. Do you have one who does this?
How frustrating! That was no fun at all. At least major things checked out OK, although it leaves you hanging when there is no actual answer.
How long have you been on the testosterone? I know that low testerone levels can lead to high blood pressure. Maybe your testosterone levels aren't up to normal yet. What is the problem with temperature regulation? Have your thyroid/adrenal glands been checked? I would think that the endocrinologist is a good idea, since you do have the problems with HGH and testosterone and temperature regulation.
Also, have you been under any increased physical/emotional stress recently? Were you feeling particularly anxious last weekend before your BP soared? It's like a vicious cycle - the BP starts to rise, which makes us feel awful and scares the s*** out of us, which causes even more anxiety and thus further increases the BP. Anxiety can certainly cause the type of episode you experienced and can be responsible for extreme spikes in BP.
Anyway, glad to hear that all seems to be settling down. Please keep us posted.
Love,
Polly
P.S. What a great idea about getting all the docs in one room! Of course, it should be the responsibility of your primary care doc to pull everything together and make sense of it. Do you have one who does this?
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
Bob,
Hmmmmm. I hear you - that really sucks. I had basically the same BP experience on Sunday a week ago. The only difference was, my clinical symptoms were different. All I had was numbness in my right arm, and the right side of my face. No headache, no cold sweat, no flushing, etc. My BP finally settled down after a couple of days or so. The ER staff couldn't find anything wrong with with me, either.
You mentioned your facial skin being affected - I noticed that the day after my event, my lips seemed chapped. Did you notice any dry mouth, while that was going on? My mouth was really dry, and my kidneys were in high gear.
Polly is correct, (of course), even though I felt calm, my body chemistry apparently did what it damn well pleased, because when I went to my doctor's office on Monday, my BP was over 180 again. When I went back there on Thursday, it was 130-something.
Temperature regulation problems on the high side, suggest hyperthyroidism, but as Polly suggests, the problem could be further up the line, in the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal, (HPA), axis. Hopefully, the endocrinologist may find something, and be able to figure it out.
You're certainly right about all the specialists. Anything that involves their specialty is extremely important, and anything else is almost completely off their radar.
I doubt that MC had anything to do with that "episode", FWIW, but nothing would surprise, any more.
Good luck with getting to the bottom of this, and as Polly said, "please keep us posted".
Tex
Hmmmmm. I hear you - that really sucks. I had basically the same BP experience on Sunday a week ago. The only difference was, my clinical symptoms were different. All I had was numbness in my right arm, and the right side of my face. No headache, no cold sweat, no flushing, etc. My BP finally settled down after a couple of days or so. The ER staff couldn't find anything wrong with with me, either.
You mentioned your facial skin being affected - I noticed that the day after my event, my lips seemed chapped. Did you notice any dry mouth, while that was going on? My mouth was really dry, and my kidneys were in high gear.
Polly is correct, (of course), even though I felt calm, my body chemistry apparently did what it damn well pleased, because when I went to my doctor's office on Monday, my BP was over 180 again. When I went back there on Thursday, it was 130-something.
Temperature regulation problems on the high side, suggest hyperthyroidism, but as Polly suggests, the problem could be further up the line, in the hypothalamus-pituitary adrenal, (HPA), axis. Hopefully, the endocrinologist may find something, and be able to figure it out.
You're certainly right about all the specialists. Anything that involves their specialty is extremely important, and anything else is almost completely off their radar.
I doubt that MC had anything to do with that "episode", FWIW, but nothing would surprise, any more.
Good luck with getting to the bottom of this, and as Polly said, "please keep us posted".
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.