My Fathers Heart? -

Hello, My Father has Parkinsons Disease. He takes 1 1/2 sinemet(25/100 strength) every 2 hours throughout the day, 1 flomax(0.4mg) in the morning, 1 levthyroxine(0.05mg)in the morning(to increase his thyroid function, it was low) and at bedtime he takes 1 clozapine(25mg) and 1 lorazepam(1mg). A year ago his blood pressure dropped so low he started passing out and was prescribed midodrine(2.5mg) to raise his blood pressure. That worked fine as I gave it to him every two hours and he was fine. I monitor his blood pressure throughout the day and it is usually within acceptable range. About two months ago after taking it the reading was 205/69 with the pulse at 70. Right after he wakes up his blood pressure is about 86/45 pulse 70 and then three or four hours later it s 105/58 pulse 82 and then in the evening it rises to 151/55 pulse 58 and up to the 200/55. We discontinued the Midodrine. What could be causing the hypertension symptoms? Is 80/33 Dangerous? What can we do?Thank U!

Take your father to a different doctor for a second opinion and diagnosis. Perhaps the doctor he is with now is not a specialist. Look in the yellow pages for your area, for a doctor specializing in heart amp;/or internal medicine. Those doctors have special training for symptoms you described. Low blood pressure is called hypotension. It can be dangerous, it can cause dizziness and other symptoms due to the blood not circulating properly. Don t wait. Go to a specialist soon.

Your dad is on Flomax. Why he is on it could be important here. Blood pressure is directly related to the amount of fluid in the blood. Your father s blood pressure is highest at the end of the day after a day s worth of fluid consumption. If he has not properly expelled unused fluid it is in his blood, thus the hypertention. Try cutting down some on his fluid intake until you can talk to his dr. about it and see if it helps. It also couldn t hurt to have his renal function tested. Yes low blood pressure is dangerous too. We call it quot;bottoming outquot;. I generally don t like to see a systolic under 90-100. I have dialysis patients every day and the drs. generally consider a systolic of 190 or higher to be in the stroke danger zone. It is imperative to get a grip on his blood pressure and maintain a safe range. There are other drugs that can raise blood pressure and can be quot;custom fittedquot; to the patient. I don t know if the dr. will prescribe dopamine for him, but we use it in the field and it is titrated to effect, meaning that the dose is gradually increased until the BP is raised to an acceptable level. In the meantime watch the fluid intake, don t dehydrate him while you re watching and ask the doc how to regulate that BP asap. Oh, and watch for edema, or swelling. This is a sign of fluid build up. There could be quite a few causes for this, but the most common that I see are decreased or absent renal function and/or congestive heart failure. I m no doc, but I find the pulse rates that accompany his bp s to be a bit inconsistent. I would definitely want to check those heart rhythms. Get some strips run. Those pulse rates generally do not go with those bp s. Good luck with him. If he has swelling and fluid build up, get him to the doc so they can get him some diuretics and get it off him. Peace.

i think you really need to aska doctor about this - no one in their right mind on this site could give you advice that would be too dangerous