Only systolic elevated?

[MomTimesThree]

I'm wondering if anyone here has any experience with only their systolic hitting high levels. With our 2nd we were diagnosed with pre-e at 29 weeks with protein of 300 on the dot and pressures that had spiked previously into the 150s, then sustained 140s.... but over 70 at the most and usually much lower. It stayed that way almost the entire pregnancy, with the exception of a few spikes, and an elevated spike of both systolic and diastolic (17x/9x) that landed us in the hospital for the last week of our pregnancy.

Has anyone else experienced anything similar? I'm noticing with this pregnancy that when I do get an elevated reading, it's still really only my systolic... diastolic still lingers in the low 60s... 70s would be "high" for me. In fact, I think the highest diastolic I've gotten so far this pregnancy was 85... and that was when we had my "whammie" and my systolic was 170. Thank goodness that only happened once.

Thanks in advance!

[trish]

Usually the "top" or systolic number is more influenced by external factors like stress, being sick etc while the bottom number is based on your heart at rest & is affected by internal factors. My Dr's were always much more concerned with the bottom number.

[MomTimesThree]

Thanks, that's what I thought, though it seems no matter what is going on (lying down, location, day/time) it's only my systolic that rises to an elevated point. My diastolic rises... but rarely if ever to above 80... it's mostly in the low 60s... even when my pulse rate is in the high 90s.

I'm hoping this is reason that maybe I have less to worry about and that we have even a greater likelihood to be pre-e free this time around. With our 2nd, we had hyrdro nephrosis, probably kidney stones and hematurnia and I always wonder if that just threw things off.

[MomTimesThree]

Well today my bi-polar bp earned me a 24hr collection. And while today I'm thinking it was stress related (I was at the dr's where I think my BP likes to show off), even after resting for 20 minutes it only went from 176/7x -> 160/59. Our last one was 242, so I'm hoping for something similar. Our 10 week was 194, so anything in that range will leave me a happy camper.

[ssaunders]

Google white coat syndrome. I have it bad. My bp is usually good at the house but when I go to the dr it is usually a little elevated.
Last time it was 142/92. It went down to 142/78 before I left. If it wouldn't have gone down, I was to go to the hospital. But doctor did say she thought it was nerves and anxiety.

The only thing that upsets me is that I am on labetalol for anxiety and blood pressure. She didn't say anything about taking more of it. She just told me to monitor it at home and if the bottom number goes up over 90 again to let them know right away.

[MomTimesThree]

Thanks, the past few times there were definitely nerves involved, traffic on way to appointments and both doctor's offices recently have had nightmare parking, though my MFM likes to remind me that lots of people sit in traffic, can't find parking and they don't all cause their bp to have a conniption! Once it spikes it seems to take a few days to go back down to a consistent normal.

Our 24 came back higher than I wanted, 396, so we started 200mg of labetalol. I'll be very curious to see what happens at home and at next weeks appointment. Hopefully this solves the problem. Crossin' crossables.

Glad you're bp went down! There's nothing like hearing get your blood pressure down otherwise you'll be spending a night in the hospital! Our doctor told us that too and I was like, seriously? Are you trying to win me a stay!?