vertigo and hypertension

Carrie is recently retired and was planning an overseas trip and a move to a warmer climate when a spike in her blood pressure sent her to the Emergency Room at her local hospital -- an experience which was neither as glamorous as television shows portray nor as callous as it was for poor Edith Rodrigues who died writhing on the ER steps after being denied assistance.

"For many years my blood pressure has been borderline hypertensive -- 140/90," says Carrie, "but my doctor said I wasn't at risk and didn't put me on any medication -- and that was fine with me because I didn't want to start popping pills if I didn't have to."

"One morning I woke up with vertigo and my heart was pounding," says Carrie. "I called my neighbor and she drove me to ER where my blood pressure was found to be extremely high -- 180/95 -- and they thought I was having a stroke."

"I never for one minute thought I was having a stroke because I was otherwise very well, strong and lucid," says Carrie. "And how can I be dizzy and feel like passing out when my blood pressure was so high? Aren't those symptoms of low blood pressure? Something was preventing the blood getting to my head, wasn't it?"

"After various tests to rule out infection, ear or heart trouble, the doctor at ER was more worried about my symptom of vertigo than anything else," says Carrie. "To make sure it wasn't caused by something serious, like a tumor or a bleed in the brain -- he said I should have a CT scan and stay overnight."

"By that time, about nine hours had elapsed since leaving home and my neighbor had left," says Carrie. "I was tired, hungry and thirsty and begged for something to eat and drink."

"A snack and fruit juice materialized and I felt so much better," says Carrie. "My blood pressure had dropped to what was normal for me and my head had stopped spinning."

"I sat there on the gurney observing the chaos around me and tried hard not to look at my bruised arms -- where a novice nursing assistant had tried unsuccessfully to find a vein and draw blood -- and it was a totally surreal experience," sighs Carrie. "I was there, but not there."

"Soon, an orderly appeared and as he pushed my gurney out of the ER room into the corridor towards the X-Ray department I saw a sight that scared the living daylights out of me," says Carrie. "The whole corridor was lined with gurneys and the faces of the elderly people laying on them were ghostly white -- like they were dead."

"The orderly told me they were ambulance cases from nursing homes and this was their 'waiting room' for ER," says Carrie, "and it was at this point that I understood why the waiting time had been so long. What you see in the normal waiting room at ER is only half the story."

"I felt my blood pressure going up again and felt that if I stayed in this place any longer I might never come out," says Carrie. "When we got to the X-Ray department I told the orderly I didn't want to go ahead with the CT scan and wanted to go home."

"I dressed and discharged myself and walked out into the cool night air feeling alive," says Carrie. "The last words of the orderly were -- 'I hope you don't end up back here in an ambulance' -- and I thought, well, if there was anything wrong with me I would find out all about it some other day. Not today, I had had enough."

"That night the vertigo returned -- when I lay down -- and the next day I saw my doctor," says Carrie. "In his opinion, I had benign positional vertigo -- caused by moving ear crystals -- and a CT scan wasn't necessary because I wasn't throwing up or having blinding headaches."

"When I asked whether the vertigo and the high blood pressure were related -- whether a crick in my neck could be restricting blood flow to the brain -- he was noncommittal," says Carrie. "He did say that vertigo is something that happens to people when they age -- it's a degenerative thing -- and that makes sense if a degeneration in my upper spine is putting pressure on an artery."

"He advised me against getting a neck artery test -- it carries risks -- and, to get rid of me more than anything else, he referred me to a neurologist," laughs Carrie. "But he remained totally unconcerned about why my blood pressure was recorded as 180/95 at ER -- and still remained higher than what was normal for me."

"I am at a loss to understand his totally cavalier attitude towards high blood pressure when everybody else in my life -- admittedly lay people -- are telling me about how dangerous it is."

"The last thing I want is to end up on a gurney in the ER corridor with all the other elderly people laying there helplessly -- and I want to help myself as much as possible in order to avoid that fate," says Carrie, "but how can I help myself when neither the ER doctor nor my local doctor showed concern about my high blood pressure?

"Hopefully, the neurologist will be able to shed light upon what happened to me," says Carrie, "and if not then I will request more referrals until I am totally reassured that my blood pressure will never spike again -- with or without vertigo."

"Retirement should be a time to relax and enjoy yourself -- in my case to do the grand European tour and make a long overdue move to a warmer climate," says Carrie. "I cannot do either of those things until I get this problem sorted out -- never to return again -- and while I hate to dwell upon medical matters and lay myself open to hypochondria, anything would be better than another trip to ER!" 

See also:

dizzy spells

deaf and dizzy invalid

exercise induced asthma

Charmian, 53, is an ex-smoker who quit cigarettes 8 years ago and admits to having been a bit of a harridan around smokers, but after a recent experience with an emergency room doctor who treated her for exercise induced asthma with the same disgust that’s normally shown to smokers she freaked out, had a bawl, and now has joined the growing ranks of ex-smokers who realize that there’s no kudos for quitting smoking as far as the medical profession is concerned and, as such, there really is no kudos in being a harridan around smokers any more.

“I was out jogging early one morning, it was bitterly cold, and suddenly I had trouble breathing,” explains Charmian. “Somehow I managed to get back home and when my husband saw the state I was in he took me immediately to the emergency room.”

“I was very proud to tell the doctor that I had quit cigarettes 8 years ago when he asked whether I smoked,” says Charmian, “but to my surprise and horror he didn’t pat me on the back and say ‘well done’ or ‘good for you’ or anything that like. Instead, he turned up his nose and started treating me like a waste of space.”

“In his opinion my bout of asthma was due entirely to the fact that I once smoked, and that was that, serves me right, my lungs are rubbish, go home and rest.”

“I was absolutely devastated to be treated in this manner after I had gone through hell and high water to quit my smoking habit and believed, without question, all the quit smoking so-called medical advice that within a short period of time my body will be as strong and healthy as a non-smoker’s. What a lie!”

“I’m glad I kicked the habit, but I’m angry that they lied to me about the medical benefits of becoming an ex-smoker.”

“I was so shocked by the way that doctor treated me that I went outside and bawled like a baby and after that I felt much better,” says Charmian. “And that was a blessing because if I had been really sick I doubt whether he would have bothered to save my life.”

“He really jolted me into reality,” sighs Charmian. “I don’t think he was a maverick in the system. I think he was doing exactly as he had been trained to do.”

“If this is the way they treat ex-smokers, then I shudder to think of the treatment that smokers get when they present at emergency for any complaint, smoking related or not.”

“I have heard that a lot of smokers claim to be non-smokers when they see a doctor and I always thought this was a stupid thing to do, until now,” says Charmian. “I don’t want to lie about my smoking history – and now that it’s on file, I can’t in any case – but frankly if being an ex-smoker gains you no more kudos than a persistent smoker then you may as well lie and get treated with respect.”

“That bout of asthma really scared me and I can see now that it was induced by exercising in cold weather and probably had nothing to do with my smoking history,” says Charmian. ”I won’t be going jogging from now on, and I won’t be pretending that I am any better than a smoker because obviously I’m not as far as the medical profession is concerned.”

“I hate to admit that I was a bit of a harridan around smokers before this incident,” admits Charmian. “I apologize for putting all you guys down and treating you like a waste of space just because you continued to smoke.”

“Now that I know what it feels like to be treated badly because of smoking – even though I haven’t touched a cigarette for 8 years – I can sympathize with your cause.”

“The so-called caring and compassionate medical profession has gone stark, raving mad in relation to smoking,” sighs Charmian. “They do their best to get you to stop smoking, and then down the line they blame every complaint you get on your smoking history and you just can't win in an environment like this.”