24 hour blood pressure monitoring

[CornishGem1975]

I'm currently being monitored and it's either failing or recording very low - very far from my usual readings. AIBU to just take it off now? I'm faced with a sleepless night and it's not even working properly!

I'm more concerned that these readings will be reported to my doctor as fact but there's a massive discrepancy between this one and my own home one (recommended by my GP)

Is the cuff on tight enough?

Super tight. It just did a reading and it was 89/28 so at this point I think I'm dead?

Try your home BP one on the other arm to gauge the discrepancy.

don't expect to sleep. bloody nuisance. frankly an antiquated method

Too tight?

Well that was a shit night. Woke up every hour, sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't and then it took ages to get back to sleep.

When this one was reading 102/51 my own monitor said 140/81 which is more usual for me.

That sounds very unhelpful. Haven't had a 24 hour monitor in a few years but remember that they said they had lots out of service when I picked mine up.

Sounds like the batteries were probably a bit flat?

It was brand new - they were very proud of it. I didn't bother doing the whole 24 hours because it was just getting on my nerves, failing constantly or giving very low readings. Dropped it back but just had to leave it in a box so no chance for feedback. If they call me about it I'd rather go and have it done in hospital.

You don't exactly sound like you tried very hard OP. I had to wear one for 5 days (that took a reading every 30 mins). It wasn't exactly fun but the results were actually much more revealing than my doctor or I anticipated.

I mean, I could have worn it for a week but it WASN'T WORKING. It would have made no difference. It was inflating then immediately going down again about 70% of the time. Then trying again a few minutes later and doing the same. They are getting nothing from that data.

I already have to monitor my blood pressure twice a day, and have been doing so for months now, so I know that a reading of 89/51 is not realistic either

are the blood pressure cuffs both the same/correct size? A cuff that’s too small will over-read and one that’s too large will under-read so if your machine/the test machine aren’t the same then that may explain the difference.

also a ‘super-tight’ cuff won’t read properly (and may explain the repeated attempts).

a BP of 89/51 isn’t completely beyond the realms of possibility though (it’s my normal standing up BP!).

No but it's not normal for me @Greybeardy as I have chronic hypertension so it would be extremely extremely unusual. It's never been under 130/75 in over three years. Even then my regular was 110.

The cuff was massive so maybe that was the problem - the nurse mentioned that my arms were small...(they're not really 😝 I'm not a dot of a thing) but yes the cuff went round about three times. When I say "super tight" I just mean it was tight to my arm and not flapping around.

Like I say, I have to do my blood pressure twice a day so I'm okay with fitting a cuff etc

130/75 is not bad at all OP - I'm surprised they didn't just suggest yearly check up with that reading?