IGX

Last night I got up in the middle of the night to take a leak. Dead sober, mind you. I seemed to pass out and fell against the toilet. I found myself lying on the floor. My mouth hurt a lot. I don't recall the fall, but I broke the back tank and water was flowing everywhere. I got the water off then looked in the mirror and was happy to see that I hadn't broken any teeth. I wasn't even bleeding from the mouth. Got a mop and began cleaning up and saw a lot of blood on the floor. Did an inventory --- now I was covered with blood --- and found a deep gash on the inside of my right biceps. The wound looked to be five or six inches long and maybe an inch and a half deep. I was feeling dizzy and wondered if I had a concussion. Called a friend to drive me to the emergency room. I couldn't figure out what had happened.

It took 4 subcutaneous stitches and eight double stitches to close the wound. (Which still didn't hurt much.) We found a few more cuts that didn't require stitches. A couple of little pieces of porcelein to dig out. The doctor asked how this happened. I said I couldn't piece it together in my mind. Then they took my blood pressure. 87 over 60. Which is really low. They gave me liter of saline and pressure came back up.

My own doctor had put me on blood pressure medication--- lisinopril --- two months ago. Said, "you might become light headed." Well, I did. Especially when I'm walking hard, then quit. When I stop, I feel dizzy: as if I'm about to faint. Yesterday was a lousy workout day. I dragged my ass through 6 miles, thinking I had done intervals the two previous days. That must be why I my legs felt like dead weights. I was tired and dizzy and went to bed early.

Then got up to pee and broke the toilet with my face.

So I'm OK now, band-aids all over, a bruise on my chest and one on the right quad. My lips look like Mick Jagger's.

I didn't take my lisinopril this morning.

Yeow... Sorry to hear this Timmah.
Glad you are all right minus the stitches, bruises, and Mick Jagger lips.

From now on be careful are those toilets, those bastards can be real mean. :-"

I'm sorry to hear about your toilet

BucketHead wrote:I'm sorry to hear about your toilet

As they say, you oughta see the other guy.

I wonder how many people die while doctors are tweaking doses of meds that may or may not be necessary. I once spent the night in a hospital room (that I didn't need to be in) listening to a guy in the bed next to me sound like he was dying because his arthritis meds were too potent. Fucking hospital made money off of both of us due to their mistakes.

Glad you're OK Timmy!

I don't blame my own doctor. I should have called him when I felt faint after exercise. I just thought it was the "light headed" feeling he warned me about.

But the ER doc said I was lucky the gash didn't cut the brachial. I could have bled out real fast.

And the house looked like a murder scene this morning. Blood in the bedroom where I got dressed. Blood tracked to the kitchen and down the stairs to see if there was water damage down in the finished basement. Blood on the walls where I must have steadied myself after a stumble.

shapecharge

My husband treated a family friend in the ER for the same thing, blood pressure medication, passed out in the bathroom in the middle of the night. Only you were lucky. This poor fellow passed out in his underpants and knocked out his front teeth. His wife called the ambulance and he was taken to the hospital in nothing but his underpants with his front teeth knocked out. And then he had to get a cab home. Luckily, some kind soul loaned him a pair of hospital scrubs so he didn't have to get in the cab in just his underpants.

Getting lightheaded while on blood pressure meds, particularly if you are taking steps that help lower blood pressure (exercising, eating better, de-stressing, etc.), is a sign that your meds need to be adjusted or discontinued...it shouldn't be considered par for the course just because one is put on a BP med.

I specifically warn people that come to me on a blood pressure med, that if they are doing the things I ask them and they start getting lightheaded upon rising and/or get low energy that they need to get a blood pressure reading because it is most likely time to adjust the med.

Your situation involves errors on both sides of the equation, IMO. Hopefully you can get off the med and stay off it.

how high does your unmedicated bp have to be for the doc to think its a good idea to give you a drug that turns you into a dizzy blonde?

What a duck says wrote:Getting lightheaded while on blood pressure meds, particularly if you are taking steps that help lower blood pressure (exercising, eating better, de-stressing, etc.), is a sign that your meds need to be adjusted or discontinued...it shouldn't be considered par for the course just because one is put on a BP med.

I specifically warn people that come to me on a blood pressure med, that if they are doing the things I ask them and they start getting lightheaded upon rising and/or get low energy that they need to get a blood pressure reading because it is most likely time to adjust the med.

Your situation involves errors on both sides of the equation, IMO. Hopefully you can get off the med and stay off it.

Agreed.

Saw my dad go through this, as well as patients that I respond to. While it can be a side effect, that doesn't mean that it SHOULD be a side effect. Get with your doc about dosages.

My doc is going to see me tomorrow --- a Saturday! --- to discuss this stuff.

I find it interesting that such accidents seem to a fairly common thing. This is reassuring. I don't know why, but it is.

It's not reassuring, it's fucked up. I'm glad you're okay though.

seeahill wrote:My doc is going to see me tomorrow --- a Saturday! --- to discuss this stuff.

I find it interesting that such accidents seem to a fairly common thing. This is reassuring. I don't know why, but it is.

This is the reason that they call it a "practice." Fuckers are practicing on us.

Glad to hear you are ok.

dead man walking wrote:how high does your unmedicated bp have to be for the doc to think its a good idea to give you a drug that turns you into a dizzy blonde?

I don't recall exactly, but it was something like 150 over 100.

You need to be put in a home.

Mickey O'neil wrote:You need to be put in a home.

Thanks Mick. I'll be at your place tomorrow.

seeahill wrote:

dead man walking wrote:how high does your unmedicated bp have to be for the doc to think its a good idea to give you a drug that turns you into a dizzy blonde?

I don't recall exactly, but it was something like 150 over 100.

with your walking and weight loss, was it coming down?

And the house looked like a murder scene this morning. Blood in the bedroom where I got dressed. Blood tracked to the kitchen and down the stairs to see if there was water damage down in the finished basement. Blood on the walls where I must have steadied myself after a stumble.

Tell us the truth, Tim. Who is the girl, and what did you do with her?

dead man walking wrote:

seeahill wrote:

dead man walking wrote:how high does your unmedicated bp have to be for the doc to think its a good idea to give you a drug that turns you into a dizzy blonde?

I don't recall exactly, but it was something like 150 over 100.

with your walking and weight loss, was it coming down?

Always been high, never comes down. 140/90 all my life. Fat or thin. Old or young. When I was a national class jock at 18. When the military declared me 1y at my draft physical ( "1Y, what does that mean?" "Your blood pressure, kid. Means when the Vietcong land in San Francisco, we'll give you a call.) I've been just fine at 140/90 for 67 years. But ... my doc is my age. A personal friend for 30 years. When it inched up to 150/100 he said --- while I was losing weight and exercising pretty damn hard ---that I needed to take meds. I guess we needed to calibrate the dose a little better.

87/60 means that the doctor knows what he was doing - especially if it took 67 years to get it down that low.

Toilets are able to be replaced.

Terry B. wrote:87/60 means that the doctor knows what he was doing - especially if it took 67 years to get it down that low.

Toilets are able to be replaced.

?????????

seeahill wrote:

Terry B. wrote:87/60 means that the doctor knows what he was doing - especially if it took 67 years to get it down that low.

Toilets are able to be replaced.

?????????

You've had high blood pressure for 67 years and your doctor has been able to drop it so low that you randomly pass out in a mere two months? That's like being a lifetime 98-pound weakling complaining that two months in the gym has left him so big that he needs to buy an entirely new wardrobe - modern medicine is a miracle!

Lot of older guys pass out after middle of the night bathroom trip - micturition syncope is the technical term. Just like you shouldn't rely on a single elevated blood pressure to diagnose hypertension, a single low one after passing out and losing blood does not a decision point make - other than to hold your lisinopril for a couple of days. Glad you are ok, and dose titration seems a smart approach, especially given the lightheadedness with workouts. The ACE inhibitors seem to have the lowest amount of side effects for active people.

Tim, I'm glad you're okay. Maybe it's time to start using those fancy graphite walking sticks again.