Increased Heart Rate and Blood Pressure

Last month, my blood pressure was at an all time low. I was consistently getting the lowest readings of my life. My blood pressure has always been low, low enough to cause symptoms of lightheadedness and weakness. Even though it's always been low, it still fell within normal limits. On average, it was about 105/70. Now, I've been on beta-blockers for years now and in addition to keeping my heart rate normal, they also lowered my blood pressure. Starting about a month ago, though, the readings suddenly plummeted to 90/56. My cardiologist told me that if the systolic pressure (the top number) goes below 90 that I should call him. It never did go below 90 so I just kept his advice in mind and monitored it. 

Then the inflammation and fluid retention started and I was put on steroids shortly after. Since then, my heart rate has been consistently 120-130 and my blood pressure sky-rocketed above normal limits to 135/85. Those numbers are too high for anyone. Instead of taking my beta-blocker at bedtime like I have been doing for over 2 years now, I started taking it early in the day to bring my heart rate and blood pressure down. About an hour after I took it, my heart rate would come down to about 95 or 100 and my pressure to about 115/75. Although it was much better, a heart rate of 95 or 100 is still too high. The only other things I could to manage it were to drink lots of water, do relaxation exercises and avoid caffeine, all of which I was already doing. Since I was still in the middle of battling severe inflammation, it was hard to know what was causing the spike in my vitals. One theory is that it was my body's "fight or flight" response to the overwhelming inflammation. The other theory was that is was caused by the steroids themselves. It was really hard to sort it out while both the inflammation and the dose of Methylprednisolone were high. But, after about a week of the inflammation being consistently well-controlled, both my heart rate and blood pressure were still super high. 

For the record, the way I knew they were both high was because I had several doctor's appointments where they took my vitals and every time I went to the grocery store or pharmacy, I used the machines there. I also monitored my heart rate at home by checking it periodically throughout the day. 

Now that it has been nearly a week of well-controlled inflammation and a significantly lower dose of steroids, both my heart rate and blood pressure have come down. Yesterday at the pharmacy, the reading were 117/75 and 101. Now, a heart rate of 101 is still too high and is considered tachycardia, but that was a pure reading because I had not yet taken my beta-blocker. That means that now my heart rate on its own is the same as it was last week shortly after taking my beta-blocker. That's a huge improvement! Again, it's hard to sort out, but now I feel pretty certain that the high dose of steroids was causing the increase in both numbers. That is one of the side effects of Methylprednisolone, along with flushing, mood swings and increased perspiration, all of which I experienced. So, for all of these reasons, I am happy to be on a lower dose. Maybe before too long I won't need them at all. That would be wonderful!