High blood pressure

Nov 14th 2007 I had the right upper lobe of my lung removed due to cancer. I was lucky it was caught a a very early stage. Before my surgery I had never had a problem with my blood presure
normal for me was 188/68-120/72 heart rate between  68-72bpm.
Now my heart rate is 76-84bpm with blood pressure at 154/77.
O2 level@95%.
Will my BP settle back to pre-surgery readings or will I have to go on medication. My meds include other than vitamins zocor 40mg a day

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,
Most cases of blood pressure do not have clearly reversible causes that upon resolution of the primary cause - would return pressures to normal.
If the lung cancer is very early that you are a candidate for operation - it is unlikely to be connected with the blood pressure changes.
I am assuming that your statement that you never had problems with blood pressure means absence of symptoms - but the numbers you placed include a high (188) isolated systolic hypertension. This may still need treatment even if you have no symptoms.
Best to follow-up and address these issues with your doctor.

[rerun08]

  my normal was 118/68 120/72  typo sorry

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,
Typo noted.
There are a couple of scenarios that come to mind here.
The first is that you are simply under stressed, loaded with IV fluids, and perhaps some other medications in preparation for surgery and hence you were temporarily hypertensive.
If you are still taking medications for pain (recovery period), the pain can keep your blood pressure high.
Another scenario is that there may be errors with measuring your blood pressure from before. Also, a single measurement of 154/77 does not automatically make you hypertensive. The reading has to be repeated on a different day.
If everything is pretty much back to normal - with the exception of the blood pressure - it may be best to continue monitoring to see if you are indeed a new case of hypertension.

[Yaz104]

My husband had an op to remove his lower left lobe but it didn't interfere with his blood pressure.Are you having chemo?My husband wasn't given any and his cancer came back so i would recommend you seriously talk to your consultant about this.My husband was told he didn't need it and also his cancer was secondary so that was another reason they gave for not giving him chemo,but i now feel they should have.Hope you recover.

[rerun08]

I am not taking chemo. My doctors said since the cancer was contained within the lobe and had not spread anywhere else.
Thank you for your response.

[Yaz104]

I don't want to upset you or any thing but i would like to mention they told my husband the same thing initially.Do get a 2nd opinion on whether chemo is needed or not.