Had to get my bp taken again yesterday. I have to give credit to the nurse on this one:
1. When I pointed out that she would *not* get an accurate reading from the machine, she did go manual.
2. And when she did get two bizarre readings off the small cuff, she went to the large cuff.
Now, if she had started with the large cuff, the repeated inflations and deflations of the first tests could have been avoided. I don't know what's so difficult about this--the small cuff barely wraps around my upper arm, and that should be the hint they need to bring out the large cuff. Is it some denial that I could possibly have biceps and triceps *that large*?
Result? Well, no I haven't suddenly reached steady state bp--I really do have a systolic and diastolic that are 50 pts apart, instead of the 20 pts the bogus taking showed--you just have to use the right equipment. And it was 10 pts lower on the systolic and 20 pts lower on the diastolic side. You know--that's enough to make the difference between a high bp reading and not.
But I always wonder--hey Alwin--if someone came into the house of pain with a bp reading of 150/130 and a resting heartrate of 58, wouldn't *someone* be asking questions about that?
Posted by lsefton at July 29, 2004 09:36 AM