What to Do When Your Blood Pressure Fluctuates Severely

If you're experiencing severe blood pressure fluctuations, it's critical to take immediate action to protect your health. Your symptoms, including blood pressure readings of 223/111 at bedtime and 55/42 upon waking, combined with fainting spells and injuries from falls, suggest a potentially serious condition that requires prompt medical attention.

Are You Being Medicated?

It’s possible that you may have syncope, a condition characterized by brief loss of consciousness due to reduced blood flow to the brain. However, it’s crucial to consult a physician to understand the underlying cause of your symptoms. Without knowing your medical history, height, family history, and current medications, it's difficult to provide specific advice.

Seek Immediate Medical Attention

If you don’t feel well, do not wait for a few hours or two days. Go to the emergency room right now. Your symptoms are serious and require prompt attention. Once you are stabilized and back home, it's important to address important life aspects such as your will, funeral plans, and finding a support system to monitor your health. While these steps seem extreme, they are designed to ensure your safety and peace of mind.

Consult a Doctor and Get Your Levels Checked

Seek a doctory immediately. Your blood pressure readings indicate a condition known as labile hypertension, where there are extreme fluctuations between hypotension (low blood pressure) and hypertension (high blood pressure) without a clear benign cause. This is unusual and potentially dangerous.

Evaluate Potential Causes

Your case may need to be evaluated by specialists such as nephrologists, endocrinologists, hematologists, and cardiologists. Here's what each specialist might do:

Nephrology

Nephrologists can use 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to confirm the fluctuations and determine if other tests such as 24-hour urine catecholamine testing for adrenal hormones or urine osmolality tests in the context of dehydration are needed.

Endocrinology

Endocrinologists can assess healthy thyroid function and test for any anomalies in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis to rule out any hormonal imbalances.

Hematology

Hematologists might perform iron studies and test for transferrin saturation and ferritin levels to ensure that there are no iron deficiencies or anemia contributing to your symptoms.

Cardiology

Cardiologists can use a trans-thoracic echocardiogram (TTE) to assess the function of the heart and ensure that there are no structural abnormalities contributing to your blood pressure fluctuations.

The autonomic nervous system and baroreflex function may also be assessed by a neurologist to identify any potential dysfunction in these critical systems that could be causing your symptoms.

It's important to coordinate between specialists to ensure that all angles are covered. If your case is misdiagnosed or suggested to be a conversion disorder, explore other hypotheses suggested by outlying test results to ensure a thorough evaluation.

Conclusion

Your symptoms are serious and require immediate medical attention. Seek the advice of a doctor and get a full evaluation. Stay safe and take necessary precautions to ensure your well-being.