High Blood pressure/ The Emergency room

[sadiemae]

All is well,but had a scare today. Had a Primary Care appt at the VA today, and blood pressure was high(177/120) Gave him a pill, still high after 30 minutes, so they sent us to the ER. Still high, another pill, highest I saw was 187/140. Gave him some pain meds, and it finally started to come down. So we are home now, maybe now the docs will believe Les when he tells them the pain he has is a 9 or 10 most all the time. ALS Sucks!

 

[Lavender Lady]

I agree with you. they need to believe him. you are another voice for him and yes ALS does suck!

 

[TedH5]

I hope they figure out how to help him...Will be praying for you.

 

[joni51]

Lori so sorry they didn't listen to you. Hope he feels better tomorow!

 

[Pat Paine]

Dear Lori, Sorry to hear about Les. There is so much ignorance regarding ALS,
and it does not help when docs do not listen.Praying for you both.
blessings.Pat

 

[brooksea]

Lori,

Sorry about what y'all have been through! Pain can make your body a live wire. Any doc should know that! And with ALS why would the docs not think you mean what you say?!? "Hey doc! I have ALS. Think you can prescribe me some oxycodone? Why not? You think I'll become addicted? How long will that addiction last you think, doc?"

 

[sadiemae]

The doc had no trouble upping his Oxycodone and Zanax script. Problem is we only see the primary doc every six months. Saw him 3 months ago, but told our home health nurse we needed his pain meds upped, so we got in right away to see him. (right away was 3 weeks!) but for the VA, thats pretty good. Our ALS clinic is in San Fran, and "Donner Summit" and lots of snow are between Reno and San Fran, so no visits to the clinic between Nov and March! I believe Les has so much pain due to him working for 13 months with undiagnosed ALS. The undiagnosed part was our fault, as we didn't go the doctor. (We attributed his problems to other things.)

 

[brooksea]

Good luck to y'all! ALS does, indeed, suck!

 

[KeeKer]

So sorry that no one is listening to you and Les! Hopefully this has opened their eyes a little bit and that Les gets some relief.

 

[abbas child]

Lori, I'm so sorry Les (and you!) are going through this. This is on the heels of Phil M's thread about problems with primary doc and pain meds. It must be so frightening and scary to be in that much pain. You're so competent, I can't imagine there's something not done which you can do, but (smile) I'd ask the docs if either of them (VA or Clinic) would please be able to take your word for Les's pain and mail you the script rather than insist on seeing him each time. Three weeks wait is a mighty long time with that degree of pain. Or is it a legality requiring the doc to see Les first each time before the script is written?

 

[sadiemae]

I think I am somewhat to blame too, as I was also not aware that the pain was so horrible. If I push, the VA here listens to me. I just thought it was OK to wait. Also, when the pain was getting worse last week, we knew we had the appt scheduled, and Les didn't want to go in, and be put in the hospital and miss the Super Bowl. Hopefully the new headace medicine will work. Has anyone been on Fiorinal? Fiorinal® (butalbital, aspirin, caffeine) for Migraines

 

[TedH5]

Glad they are at least listening now. I hope he is doing much better.

 

[Katie C]

I think there are certain accepted ideas about ALS that doctors have trouble letting go of.. both because it means a tougher road for their patients and a harder job for themselves. Among these are "there aren't any cognitive or personality changes", "at least there's no pain", "it's a peaceful death.." I don't believe it's malevolent on their part. But it's there.

 

[Miss]

I'm so sorry to hear about Les. My husband has had some similar problems with blood pressure. His primary at the VA lowered his BP meds and that caused a problem. Pain sends his BP up, but at least we know that. Oxycodone helps with that. I think i is probably about time to up his dose of Oxycodone, too.

Katie, you are so right. When my husband's fight is over, I am hoping to figure out a way to get that misinformation pulled from the literature and the doctors' party line. It is outrageous. In MOST cases, nothing could be farther from the truth.

 

[laurel]

Lori I'm sorry for what your husband is going through. I've had Fiornal in the past--gave me gut pains and constipation because of the codeine, but most people do just fine on it for pain. Just a thought, the high BP can be due to other medical concerns too. Half the population seems to have hypertension due to our long term poor diets of eating the wrong foods and some have a family history and it just happens. I have MS and have hypertension which is probably related to high cholesterol. I know my GP will often say "we tend to chalk every symptom you have up to the MS, but most are other conditions super imposed". Hubby has CIDP and has high blood sugar which is unrelated to his CIDP. After that babble, my point is that a person can have ALS and other conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis etc. so it's important to get to the real source of the problem. But for sure pain could well be the culprit. Wishing you well and hope Les feels better soon.
Laurel