Getting off BP meds

[LisaS]

I'm wondering if anyone here did get off BP meds and the mechanics of how you did it.

My housemate is on BP meds and has started PP with me - he's losing weight and monitoring his BP throughout the day. On his meds, he runs about 105-118 / 72-78 over the day. And the tops of those ranges are pretty rare - believe me, he takes his BP many times a day (he really wants off the meds) so we know it is avg 110/74 across the day - so he has good control.

the question is - at what point does he go back to the doctor to get a reduction in his meds? Will his diastolic plummet into the 60s? Should he just go now and ask if he can reduce his dose and keep monitoriing?

Just curious as to what others might have done or what your experience was.

Lisa

[Gaelen]

Lisa, having had those 'diastolic plummets,' I sure wouldn't recommend waiting for them. I literally went from taking a shower, getting ready to go to a lacrosse game, to too dizzy to stand after pulling on jeans and walking down a standard flight of stairs. Down the stairs...that's supposed to be the easy part! ;)

Maybe a safer course would be to have, on paper, a couple weeks' worth of that BP monitoring with the daily averages clearly incorporated into the list/chart. And then ask the doc what he'd recommend as a course for reducing the meds, and suggest that maybe small reductions/tweaking while continuing to monitor. If he brings that two weeks or so of monitoring to the appointment, he'll be demonstrating commitment to monitoring that will probably go a long way toward showing the doc that reducing meds won't be putting his patient at risk.

[LisaS]

that's kind of the path he's on - he has an appt scheduled for 3/28 (on another matter) - but he wants to bring 2 wks of monitoring with him to "make his case" - he has a little orthostatic hypotension (or so it seems) at various times - but as this is a self-correcting condition (after the woozy, it is fine again) he hasn't caught it on the monitor - it is back up by the time he gets over to measure it.

[LisaS]

well his 3/28 appt was postponed to 4/4 (dr had the flu <g>).
Background - he quit his BP meds for 5-6 days prior to 3/28 and logged his BP - in prep for going on 3/28. (this was his decision - to go off meds and "see what happens")

Everything was fine - no spikes or anything - and he obsessed over taking it (like every 2-3 hours when awake, after exercise, after sitting 5 mins after exercise, etc) so he has a good idea of what it was throughout the day. Not sure exactly when he would have seen drug clearance though - but there didn't seem to be a change from when on to when off - except mentally. Off the meds, he suddenly felt "unfoggy" -- where he wouldn't have said he was "foggy" before - just noticed the effect once it was gone.

anyway - when 3/28 appt was cancelled - he went back on meds until tuesday.

Dr. told him tuesday he could go to every other day (just to blunt effects of going off diuretic cold turkey) - and then gave him a script for lower dose (50%) of same meds to go on (every other day) when his current runs out. I'm not sure how long the every other will go before backing off further. He is just to monitor closely and if he sees a consistant (2 or 3 day) rise to a specific baseline (e.g. sys > X or dia> Y) - take different action (which I forget the instructions of - call back - or go back on every day or something).

So this is good news. He's had HBP for years - even when he was at a normal weight and exercising - so if diet can get him off meds he'll be a really happy camper.

[Billie]

Congratulations, good health is what it is all about!