How high is this blood pressure and should I worry?

[stirling]

Ds is 17 and since he's had covid in April, he's just not right. Keeps feeling weak and needing to sit down, so I tested his blood pressure over the weekend and it was 138/?. Can't remember the over number as I was so shocked about the 138.

Consequently tested some more but it stayed around 128/80 ish.

How worried should I be? I couldn't get a dr appointment this morning!

Just take him to the GP. The machine can send your BP upwards white coat syndrome. He's obviously unwell poor lad

Thank you, making an appointment

I wouldn't be worried about that at all, it's only slightly high and went down when you repeated.

That’s only mildly high and is to be expected if he’s been a bit under the weather or stressed. The fact it came down when you tested again would make me worry even less. 120/80 is a normal reading. 128 is only a tiny bit high and could probably be reduced from just doing calming breathing

It’s one reading @stirling why don’t you just monitor it over the course of a few days and write down the numbers before going to your gp. That’s not even that high tbh.

Ah, thank you everyone. That's really reassuring. Will do. I've got an appointment now too

High BP (hypertension) is classed as so when the top systolic no. is 140+. And this would have to be a sustained reading.
My advice would be to take a reading morning then at night. Record results over a week.

It's not high, nothing to worry about

Many thanks everyone

Blood pressure is ok.

It sounds like he may have Long Covid. I have had this since early 2021 and the sites below have useful information.

mylongcovid.org.uk/

www.yourcovidrecovery.nhs.uk/what-is-covid-19/long-covid/#:~:text=recovery%20from%20COVID%3F-,What%20is%20long%20COVID%3F,within%20the%20first%204%20weeks.

longcovid.physio/longcovid

www.longcovid.org/

The last one is the adult support group as he is 17, there is also Long Covid Kids which have lots of useful information for schools and colleges etc..

www.longcovidkids.org/

Also check him for postural orthostatic tachycardia which can occur post-Covid (I also have this too after COVID).

You can do the NASA lean test at home and record the results to take to the GP.

If you scroll to the bottom of this link you will find both clinician and patient instructions on how to carry this out.

Also POTS UK is a good website for reference of symptoms and management if he does show signs of POTS and has information for GP's.

www.potsuk.org/pots-for-medics/gp-guide/

Choconuttolata this is really helpful info. Checking the links now, thank you

He's also prime age for glandular fever which is a beast.