The importance of advocating for yourself at the doctor

Just a PSA for any peas like me who have trouble speaking up to authority figures, like doctors.

My blood pressure started to creep up a few years ago during a very stressful time in my life. I was put on a med that had bad side effects for me, and then a different med, which had worse side effects. I decided to quit taking the med as my anxiety started to get under control, and purposefully increased my exercise and healthy eating habits to try to improve my BP.

My doctor was not super thrilled with my decision. My gynecologist and even my dentist have lectured me about getting my BP under control because it always reads high in their offices.

But I have a highly rated monitor at home that consistently shows normal and below-normal readings.

Yesterday at the dentist, they used the automatic BP cuff on me and it was extremely painful. I'm not sure if it needs to be recalibrated or what. I'm not lying when I say it felt like labor pains in my arm. Needless to say, my BP got higher each of the FOUR times they re-checked it. I finally told them no more - that I was seeing my doctor the next day and they could go ahead with my cleaning or not. They did my cleaning but made me sign a waiver. 

I determined at that point to stop just accepting whatever the doctor/dentist wants to do. This is crazy.

I had my annual physical today, and was expecting a verbal wrangle with the doctor about my BP. I really don't want to take unnecessary meds. I've told them in the past that my BP reads normal at home, but they only trust their own machine. So I decided to take my home BP monitor with me. My BP read high on both their machine and mine - almost identical readings. The doctor even did my BP manually just be sure, and then my machine again, and agreed that my machine is accurate. And then I was able to show her all the normal readings in my machine's memory.

She asked me to keep monitoring but said she wouldn't recommend meds again as long as my home readings continue to be normal. She wants me to bring my home machine each time so we can be sure it's still an accurate reading, which seems very reasonable to me. And no unnecessary meds!

This may seem like a little thing to some people, but it was a major thing for me to advocate for myself like that. So I just wanted to encourage anyone else who might be afraid to speak up at the doctor. Be well, peas! 

I will guess because almost every dental procedure that I have had done involves at least some bleeding.  Many/most dentists won’t work on people with certain heart conditions unless they are on prophylactic antibiotics to prevent cardiac complications.  What goes on in your mouth isn’t separate from what goes on in other parts of your body, even though insurance agencies have set up a false separation.  

My dentist said it's because so many people don't have regular checkups with a physician.  They are trying to screen for HBP, not refuse treatment if it's high.

I tell her no thank you to the BP check. I just want to get in and get out!

Can I ask why a dentist is taking your bp??

I'm almost 50 (next March) and not once, ever in my life, has a dentist taken my blood pressure. Possibly when they put me under in the specialists office to have my wisdom teeth out, but my regular dentist? Not ever.

Honestly curious!

This was also my dentist's explanation.  But my dentist's office uses a wrist one, identical to the one I have at home, so I know the instructions are to put it on the LEFT wrist.  They always put it on my right wrist and scoff when I tell them it's supposed to go on the other one.  And then they don't get a reading after trying twice, and just go on with my visit anyway.

My doctor put me on cholesterol meds, and has me take Coenzyme Q 10 with it to combat the muscle pain. Haven't had a problem so far.

My dentist has taken my blood pressure for several years. They use the little automatic machine that goes on your wrist.