im a 43 year old male. have been healthy my entire life. have exercised 3-5 days a week (bicycling) for 20 years. currently way around 186. have never done a single drug in my life, not even smoked pot. never smoked, rarely drank a glass of red wine before, no alcohol at all now (beta-blocker).
in march 2010 i crashed on my bike and had my first ever visit to a hospital in my life (well since birth). i ripped open my knee on some gravel and needed to get it sewn back up. upon admitting me in triage, they took my BP and asked if i have high BP. i was like i have no clue. dont even know what is normal or what the numbers even mean. so the sewed me up and sent me on my way and advised that i see my primary doc (i never get sick so it had been 3 years since i'd seen a dr. so i made an appt with a new dr. and told him the ER was concerned with my BP. he prescribed a low dosage of Lisinopril which i began taking immediately. he ordered several blood tests (cholest, etc) and asked me to come back the following week. the Lisinopril began making me feel ill almost immediately and made it impossible for me to sleep so i stopped taking it after the 4th day. the following week, i returned to my dr to go over my test. he looked them over, told me i was as healthy a person as he'd seen and told me to forget about taking the Lisinopril and get back to my normal life as before.
that very night, while lying on my sofa watching the Lakers game, and for no apparent reason, the left side of my face went numb. i had purchased a home BP monitor the week before. so after getting up and trying to "walk it off" assuming my face had just fallen asleep, i took my BP. it was in the neighborhood of 270/170. knowing this was very bad, i jumped into my car and drove the the hospital 3 miles away. 2 days in ICU, every test known to man (CAT, brain MRI, echo, ekg, every blood test, etc). The diagnosis was that i had a minor TIA and was released and told i have hypertension. before this, i had never even heard of a TIA.
to answer the next question, there is not really a family history of hypertension. both parents are now on BP meds, but but are near 70 so that's expected.
i was started on Toprol 50mg which i took once a day. i then began seeing a cardiologist. again, endless tests (including stress test) found nothing abnormal. my meds have been changed a bit, i now take Exforge 5/160, which is Norvasc and a water pill in one pill, and for the past 4 months, i've been taking Bystolic 5mg in the evening. i've accepted the fact that i will likely be taking meds for the rest of my life.
i've lost around 8 pounds in the past 4 months by changing my diet. i stopped all caffeine way back in April and stopped drinking even red wine once i was put on the beta blocker as im told you cant drink while on one. for the most part, my BP has seemed to be fairly stable and in the "normal" range. that said, a couple of times, and for a few days straight, my BP jumps 10-15pts and remains consistently higher for a few days. this happend back in August, and i went to my dr and he told me to just ride it out and see what happens. i did, and it settled back down, even to "low" levels of 112/72 (by my standards anyway).
then, about 16 days ago, by BP spiked up again. i began feeling like i was getting the flu. my symptoms were dizzyness, slight nausea, slight weakness/lethargy, trouble getting to sleep, and the most baffling, extreme cold flashes, where i can not get warm no matter what i do. last week i had plans to go to hawaii, and decided to go even with these symptoms as i figured i could get better in the heat. i spent 2 decent days there, then on the night of the 7th, i had one of these cold spells that i could not shake. if you cant get warm in hawaii, somethings wrong. after about 1 hour, i ended up going to the ER in Kahuku to see if they could help. but before i left, i took 2 Xanex. they took my BP in the hospital and it was only slightly elevated, no fever, etc. they took some blood and urine samples and did a quick test. the only result they found was slightly elevated white blood cell count.
so im not 16 days in and im not getting worse, but only feel slightly better. last night i had another of the freezing episodes, which had me contemplating heading back to the ER, which i did not. i did however, take 2 Xanex, and after about an hour, began warming up and feeling slightly more "normal".
i did meet with my primary doc on Monday and told him i wanted to be tested for everything that this could possibly be. on Tuesday, they took a few vials of blood to do some tests. however, ive been through this so im not sure how much confidence i have in them finding anything. to say it's frustrating is an understatement. my life has been turned upside down.
so, my question. could this really be Anxiety related??? the only reason i ask, is that it seems that the Xanex calms me. im not sure if it's really the Xanex or just the process of the cold flash running it's course.
or do all my symptoms add up to something bigger? i honestly dont care if it's something bad, but im the type of person who wants to know.
sorry for the long message. any advice would be greatly appreciated.