i know it’s a no-no but i did took an anti-hypertensive pill without any doctor consultation.  i do not recommend  anyone to do this – but i just did.  i have two boxes of atenolol 50mg in my rig clinic, actually it has been there sometime now, like since i started to work for this rig nearly three years ago.  well i was too worried about my abnormally high blood pressure and it will take a lot of fuss of me going to the hospital.  so i read carefully the product literature of this pill, the indications, dosaging and undesirable effects.

i took one yesterday after i woke up in the morning, i checked my blood pressure – 150/100, by mid-morning i checked again, it was 110/70 . . hooray!  it worked!  i was relieved.

so i closely monitor my blood pressure and found out that it has an average of 110/70.  for now i’m going to take this medicine continuously – even if it was out of self-medication.

at first i thought it was just jetlag.  i was feeling light-headed and i get occasional blurred and double vision as i was using my office computer.  the next day, i still felt the same so i got my digital blood pressure monitor and checked my vitals:  systole 160/ diastole 100, pulse 80/min.  i mumbled.. ‘fuuuck’. 

‘normal human daily blood pressure range can vary widely, so any single blood pressure monitor reading is not reliable.  bp monitor readings must be taken at different times of day, to determine average blood pressure levels over time.’

using this blood pressure chart by vaughn, a systole 160/ diastole 100 can be classified as pre-moderate stage 2.  i did monitored my average and it was the same.  the only reason i can blame for this was my diet, i wasn’t stressed out or anything but i did consumed a lot of fatty and salty food when i was on days off, likely my cholesterol level is also high.