To not go to work with a 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor?

[Hyacintharehighersincelasttime]

ie.
i cant drive so will need to go on the bus.
i wont be able to use phone - that's ok, i can get away with that
but the noise, everyone will know, and i dont want them to

I personally would go to work, sorry OP.

I know you don't want to, you can tell by your first/second post you actually were not intending to go to work but you wanted someone to agree with you.

But if you're measured over 24 hours you really shouldn't be doing things out the norm. Go to work, do your commute to and back etc.

If you spend your day trying to reduce your BP you're not going to give your big standard results to the doctor

why are you so combative to posters here, OP?

maybe that angst you are carrying around is the source of your hypertension?

person fitting the machine said I neednt go to work

yup, probably my angst

Just tell them about it, it doesn't have to be a big secret. They'll understand. It needs to monitor a typical day, not one with your feet up on the sofa.

Oh just saw that you don't have to go to work anyway don't then!

I rarely have my feet up on the sofa, so wouldn't do that today

This thread is bonkers.

It’s not helping my blood pressure that’s for sure.

If the person fitting the machine said you don't need to go to work then why the thread?

You seem very set on not going to work and are looking for validation, highlighted by the fact you gripped onto what crisp has said.

The point is to see if and when your BP fluctuates and find any patterns. If you're so sure it weight and diet related why did you agree to the test?

The doctors don't just whack on expensive equipment for the fun of it.

YABU

i can just imagine the laughter and giggles every time it goes off, every 20 minutes

For me, that would be a reason to go, not to stay home!

Drip drip. If the person fitting it said you didn't need to go to work then why ask the question? The point lots of others have made is you need a NORMAL day, not a pottering round going for a relaxed walk sort of day. You don't actually know if your job causes high blood pressure or not which is why it is important to go to work. Your colleagues will not giggle every 20 minutes. It really isn't that funny.

I did it on Friday. It gets error messages when driving because of the motion of the car, but I still got more than enough decent readings. It can sit under your clothes, and apart from holding your arm straight for a few seconds every half hour, it was no problem

Well then, if it is ok over the 24 hours, and let's hope it is, I can assume the stress of having it taken caused the raise

If it is not OK I will blame dh/mumsnet

I'm with you OP if the issue is suspected white coat syndrome. My BP was raised very high at doctors, I have quite a bit of 'test anxiety' (due to a million bloody academic exams I've sat in my life and my fear of failure!) I would sit for half an hour while they retested every 10 minutes and it would drop steadily but not to levels they were happy with. It's happened my whole life. Even as a tiny very fit 17 year old.

I have my own BP monitor at home and that would show my BP as totally normal. My GP wanted to check so gave me a 24 hr monitor. I took the day off and lounged around. I told GP. They were totally happy and declared WCS. Why? Because your BP is a base line taken at resting state. No-one has their BP tested in Normal conditions during their commute or while at work! What the test showed was that the GP tests were not under resting conditions because I was stressed out. Chilling at home showed my real BP.

See, on mine the thing I found interesting was that the times I expected it to be high (later in the day, after eating, after exercise) it wasn't. My diastolic pressure was at crisis level in my sleep and when I was folding laundry.

The thing is stress and anxiety are not 'reasonable'. The only way for a test (of something which is known to be affected by stress) to be true would be if the op was not stressed at all by the test. If she is apprehensive regarding wearing the monitor at work that is a source of stress. Whether that apprehension is deemed reasonable by others on here or not.

The reason I would suggest (immediate) lifestyle changes to give the op an optimum chance of making a positive change to her blood pressure is because those lifestyle changes not only would prevent a dependence on medication, along with all its side effects, but would affect other aspects of her health and well being positively too. Coupled with being able to accurately measure her own blood pressure with her own monitor this allow her to take control of her own health and be tremendously empowering.

Thankfully we have an NHS but you have to remember its policies and procedures are governed by statistical data which does not necessarily take into consideration how an individual patient might react to certain treatment. Thus it is up to patients to communicate their own views in order to get the optimum treatment for them as individuals. It is worth noting that what is increasingly being acknowledged is the huge impact patient choice and autonomy has over positive outcomes. It is from this perspective I have written my posts.

I don't know why you have bothered to ask people's opinions. You've already made your mind up that you aren't going to work, and are therefore going to provide completely irrelevant readings.

person fitting the machine said I neednt go to work

If this is true as you have reported, it is further evidence that you are just attention-seeking and aren't interested in advice unless it confirms your own (misguided) opinion.

you don't sound comfortable or at ease around your work colleagues. Worried they'd mock you for having health checks. Would rather avoid them, for fear of being targeted.

There's your high blood pressure, right there! And you might still have that cause of high blood pressure while you're at the docs, even though you think you're away from work and relaxed.

Do you get anxious regularly, related to driving, public transport and work?

and doctors

I have been on one twice. I wore it to work and we just giggled and shared vibey jokes when it went off. It was neither awkward or a big deal.

Schaden if the OP is 'attention seeking' in order to gain validation for her own views, what does that say? That she is anxious about this whole scenario. These are the sorts of circumstances when people seek attention and validation. So some kindness and understanding is in order, I would say, not a 'telling off'. Sorry, but people with stress related conditions often get stressed when they feel pressurised to perform. Might not be very convenient in terms of measuring but a good doctor should be sympathetic to this.

c'mon, who said it was my work causing bp? did i? bp is caused by too much coffee, salt, not enough exercise, being overweight.this is what i need to improve, i know this

You do not know that in your case do you? You have no idea what is causing it, nor does cool Just listing the most common causes doesn't stop it being a different cause.

As for the accuracy of a monitor bought at a chemist .

You also have no idea if it is permanently raised or if it it fluctuates. You have no idea if your BP drops while you are at work.

So glad I decided not to go, my unwashed hair is a total mess