Boff - Yes he must take the meds anyway. The effect will not be instantaneous, and each agent may only lower his overall BP by a few mmHg - which is why so often you need multiple agents to get a really sustained reduction. It realy is a trial and error thing to some extent. If the docs were really concerned, and sent him into hospital, they could give him something that would work more quickly and effectively, but those kind of things need to be done in hosp as you don't want a rapid drop in BP in the outside world setting! Wait and see what doc says when he calls you (12 to 2 you said, I think??). Please don't panic - the important thing is that it has been detected and can be treated.