The doctor isn't happy...

...with my blood pressure. I went for my regular check with the doc at the hospital yesterday. Dr C is not happy that my diastolic pressure remains high. My diastolic readings range from 97 to 105. Systolic is okay at about 120 to 130+.

He generally feels that this shows the BP is not well-controlled. He wanted to up my meds but had difficulty finding one that would meet my requirements - ie breastfeeding-friendly with no side effects (with my current meds, everytime I forget a dose and make up for it, say hours later, I would get a really bad headache. The doc can't explain why but this being the case, he is not to keen to just up the Nifidepine).

And when I tried bargaining for more time, to wait and see before upping the meds, he said: How much longer should we wait? We have already waited for more than 2 years! No doubt there has been some improvement, but this is not good enough!

I said, (a feeble excuse) that it was my weight and suggested I try to cut back. Join a gym, I tried. He said, not unkindly: You've said that before.

Sigh.

Suitably chastised, I decided to shut up. Nothing I can say. My weight speaks for itself, the increase of protein in the urine is worrying and the constant poor diastolic measurements are just making him antsy.

I am tasked to see him in 6 weeks instead of my usual 6 months, with instructions to show him the urine strips that I use. He wondered if the strips were testing for microalbumin (which would make them ultra sensitive to any protein) and wanted to see them. I agreed. But I don't think the strips test for microalbumin. I didn't say so though. I just asked: no urgency right? He nodded a bit distractedly: yes no urgency. But he prescribed me a diuretic anyway, to take with my Nifidepine, just once a day, to try to bring the BP more into control. The diuretic would make me pee more often, but apart from that, no other side effects.

That's precisely what I was afraid of - the slippery slope into meds, meds and more meds. I hate this because there is no end in sight. Its not like you take the meds and then you get better and you don't have to take it anymore.

I will never get better. Any meds that I take is just to keep my condition from getting worse. And from the looks of it, it's not working too well either - hence more meds.

I know the doc is just buying time. He actually wanted to give me an angiotensin but realised that with my history of asthma, the angiotensin was out of the question. Also, it is contraindicated for breastfeeding. He asked me how old the baby was and did not comment when I said the baby was approaching 3. To his credit, he never gave me any of the rubbishy schpiel that other doctors would - about stopping breastfeeding already, etc etc.

So I will 'guai-guai' take my meds like a good girl and try - I stress the word: try - to keep to a good diet and exercise. Like instead of tearing through the huge jar of foie gras that KH's French colleage brought home for me from the foothills of the Pyrenees, I'd just have to keep my scoops modest and pace myself for one foie gras serving in two months... gee that is hard!