Effects of High Blood Pressure: From Fluid Retention to Massive Headaches

Just over a year ago, I had minor abdominal surgery, and all was well until I went into recovery.

Then, my blood pressure, which had always been on the low side of normal, skyrocketed. This is a fairly typical reaction to pain, but my doctor was very concerned. Not only was my blood pressure now on the high side of high, but it was even worse for someone who had always tended to flow in the other direction.

The immediate orders were to lie on my left side to ease the flow of blood through my heart. The idea, my doctor explained, was to let gravity help do the work. Next, I was given pain medication, lots of it, to try to stop the body’s reaction to the pain.

I’ve been around other people with high blood pressure, my husband’s blood pressure is regularly on the high side, but I wasn’t prepared for how it affected me. My husband has headaches, dizzy spells and a general malaise when his blood pressure gets too high.

I swelled up like a balloon. I could not wear anything other than a nightgown, because everything I owned put pressure on my incision. When I left the house, to go to doctor visits, I have to wear an old pair of my husband’s shoes because my feet were so swollen then would not fit in any of my own shoes.

And, I could not get enough to drink.

The doctor had advised me to drink lots of water to help flush the body, but I felt like I was always drinking something.

Since I had never had a blood pressure problem before, the doctor did not want to put me on blood pressure medicine, but did want to monitor me closely. So, I had to go to the doctor every third day for two weeks.

Otherwise, I rested on my couch. I alternated between Vicoden and prescription strength Motrin to fight the pain and set an alarm clock to wake up to take the pills. I tried to tell the doctor that I didn’t need the pain medication any more after the first week, but when I got off the schedule, my blood pressure would rise again and quickly.

I was hot, even though it was winter, and I could barely eat. My head was throbbing all the time and when I got up to use the restroom, I thought I would fall or vomit or both. For two weeks, I avoided pork and salt, not that I eat a lot of wither to begin with, and spent all my time resting. If I raised my head from the pillow, my eyes would get blurry and my head would start to throb. I eventually decided that the pain medication was not for my incision, but for the intensive headache brought on by the high blood pressure.

Then, almost as quickly as it had begun, I could feel my blood pressure drop. The first sign that I was getting better was that I was hungry again and food actually tasted good. The intensity of the headaches seemed to fade more slowly, but they weren’t as bad.

And all the excess fluids my body had been retaining finally decided to be eliminated. My fingers began to have shape again instead of being round, puffy sausages and for the first time in two weeks I could wear my own slippers. A day later, I could wear my own shoes and tie the laces.

For me, the high blood pressure episode was marked by the expected symptom, the extreme headache, and the unexpected symptom of full body swelling. It was painful and uncomfortable all at the same time.

Thankfully, I do not have the majority of the warning signals for high blood pressure-no family history, no racial history (It is for unknown reasons more prevalent in African-Americans), no high cholesterol or over consumption of salt or triglycerides that tend to increase your blood pressure. But I am overweight and that can cause blood pressure to rise. Since I never want to experience it again, I’m working on eliminating that risk factor too.