3 episodes with high blood pressure

SDianeL

My DH is mid stage dementia they think is vascular. They can't do an MRI. Over the last several months he has had 3 episodes of very high blood pressure, dizziness, sweating, nausea & vomiting. All 3 related to his high blood pressure. The rest of the time his blood pressure is within normal range. The last time we went to the ER they kept him overnight and they found nothing. His heart is fine. They said he could be having mini strokes but they did a CT scan and no evidence. Long shot but is anyone's person they care for having anything similar. The Neurologist is no help. She did say in 6 months if he has another episode she might request a PET Scan. Those are expensive & the VA doesn't really want to do one.

M1

That's hard Diane. Hard to tell if the high blood pressure is causing the episodes--which would lead to one kind of evaluation--or is in response to the episodes--which leads you down a different path. There are very rare secretory tumors that can cause intermittent spikes in blood pressure--you might ask if those have been ruled out (the technical terms is pheochromocytoma, although there could be others).

Hope they can sort it out for you.

Jgirl57

My HWD has the same symptoms but it was due to low blood pressure . They called it syncope/collapse. Dr took him off BP medicine and did heart scans which showed decreased heart function. The sweating and vomiting were quite scary and twice I called 911. I have also noticed that heat sometimes triggers the episodes. Other than stopping the BP medicine , it doesn’t seem that there is much that can or would be done. My HWD tolerated the heart scans but really doesn’t remember the sweating vomiting episodes .