After my cardiology exam, Dr. Jaber asked me to take my blood pressure at least twice a day for a week to see how effective the newly prescribed BP meds were. Then, I was to call his nurse, Randy, and report my numbers.
Date BP Pulse Time Side
| 1/19/13 | 123/80 | 69 | 11:15 AM | Right arm |
| 1/20/13 | 120/75 | 68 | 11:28 AM | Left arm |
| 1/21/13 | 105/70 | 62 | 10:30 AM | Right arm |
| 1/22/13 | 112/78 | 63 | 11:00 AM | Left arm |
| 1/23/13 | 113/77 | 63 | 10:55 AM | Right arm |
| 1/23/13 | 129/79 | 70 | 5:43 PM | Left arm |
| 1/24/13 | 117/84 | 66 | 9:49 AM | Right arm |
| 1/24/13 | 112/81 | 69 | 9:55 AM | Left arm |
After I shared these numbers with Randy, he said, “You can’t get better than that. Please go ahead and phase in the new meds as Dr. Jaber prescribed and let me know if you have any problems. Otherwise, we’ll see you in a month.”
That all sounded good to me. I had worked out a plan for taking certain pills in the morning and two others at night. Since there was one of the blood pressure prescriptions that included one pill in the morning and one at night, my one dose of 80mg. of Lipitor at night, too. Having two pills to take at night would make it easier to remember. I used a weekly organizer to take six pills every morning and the two before bedtime.
My blood pressure on January 29th was 105/68 and on January 30th it was 100/63 and my pulse was 67. As the medicine synced with my body, my numbers found a plateau in a pretty low range. A level I hadn’t seen in decades! This was the range that Dr. Jaber wanted for healing and reducing stress on my heart and the stents which needed six weeks to settle into my arteries. All of this would serve me well as I eventually began to do some exercising.
