blood pressure problems
Join Date: Apr 2000
Location: gone surfin'
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It sounds like you have a robust plan there Flyinhi.
Hypertension doesn't seem to twitch the authorities too much, which is a good job, as people like me make a good living bombarding healthy people with chemicals in an attempt to keep them healthy.
What's different about your case is your age, and the threshold for looking for sinister causes, for example, pheochromcytoma, should be lower in someone your age. This is probably more important than looking for end organ damage in your case.
It does look like, in your case, there may have been a rush into nudging you into a protocol designed for managing this long term condition, and I'm wondering if your doc has been a little enthusiastic into placing you on this journey.
It sounds like you are seeking "undiagnosis" and the plan seems to be going well. Have a look at my earlier NICE link which explains the use of 24 hour ambulatory bp measurement in reaching a diagnosis. (Or undiagnosis.)
It sounds like the "flushing" incidents can be easilly unravelled by a listening clinician.
Let us know how you get on
Hypertension doesn't seem to twitch the authorities too much, which is a good job, as people like me make a good living bombarding healthy people with chemicals in an attempt to keep them healthy.
What's different about your case is your age, and the threshold for looking for sinister causes, for example, pheochromcytoma, should be lower in someone your age. This is probably more important than looking for end organ damage in your case.
It does look like, in your case, there may have been a rush into nudging you into a protocol designed for managing this long term condition, and I'm wondering if your doc has been a little enthusiastic into placing you on this journey.
It sounds like you are seeking "undiagnosis" and the plan seems to be going well. Have a look at my earlier NICE link which explains the use of 24 hour ambulatory bp measurement in reaching a diagnosis. (Or undiagnosis.)
It sounds like the "flushing" incidents can be easilly unravelled by a listening clinician.
Let us know how you get on
Feel free to ping me
You need to get off all medication
Then measure your blood pressure several times a day
Get confirmatory readings from a nurse or doctor or paramedic - you do NOT need a specialist
Go talk to an ame as any sensible doctor will know you have been mistreated and have no pathology
If the FAA are not happy I think you need to consider contacting your state licensing body as you may find they agree that nobody at 16 should be given medication at an initial consultation. If your treatment is subject to censure any restriction on your medical would have to be reviewed
You need to get off all medication
Then measure your blood pressure several times a day
Get confirmatory readings from a nurse or doctor or paramedic - you do NOT need a specialist
Go talk to an ame as any sensible doctor will know you have been mistreated and have no pathology
If the FAA are not happy I think you need to consider contacting your state licensing body as you may find they agree that nobody at 16 should be given medication at an initial consultation. If your treatment is subject to censure any restriction on your medical would have to be reviewed
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Join Date: Jul 2011
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Well we ruled pheochromacytoma**(sp?) out with a urine collection, and blood work which showed a small elevation in one of the chemicals that this kind of tumor produces. She then had me do an MRI to see if she could find a tumor, using one of the best MRI machines in the world and could not find a thing. She did say it may take 2 or 3 scans to find it but because my blood pressure stays LOW at home( I just checked my blood pressure it was 100/50) she did not suspect it as she said no meds would really help my bp if I had this. I am thinking after I send my week of bp readings to her she will say that I have been mis diagnosed because my blood pressure is just simply to low. I thank you guys for all the help, and I sent in all my paper work they wanted and I should hear back from the faa in say oo about a month the way they move, I will however keep you guys updated, for the help of others if they come down the same road I am right now. At this point I dont think its not going to help do anything right now because they have not made there final decision.
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Homonculus
Are you really suggesting he contact the equivalent of the UK GMC to report the practitioner?
If I've misunderstood your comment, then apologies, if I havn't, I don't think it matters what I say.
Are you really suggesting he contact the equivalent of the UK GMC to report the practitioner?
If I've misunderstood your comment, then apologies, if I havn't, I don't think it matters what I say.
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Well guys, I got my medical back. Unfortunately, its a SI. They also said the next one I get by my Ame is also going to be a SI, and I'm not sure why. They are saying That because of episodes of dizziness and a cardiac condition is why. So now I'm stuck with a SI and I had dizziness because I had a sinus problem when I went to the doctor(he noted that) and the cardiac is because I have a benign heart mummer. Is it possible for me to get a regular 1st class back next visit? They are still thinking I have dizziness and I do not. I am also on no bp medication any more and my pressure is staying in normal ranges. Thus I think its safe to say I was misdiagnosed.
sorry but where did the sinus problem and the heart murmer come from???
In medicine we have to deal with the entire pathology. You can't just add another diagnosis and assume it isn't relevant.
If you have had sinus issue they will need investigating or confirmation they have resolved. Until then the symptoms you put down to unnecessary drugs might be sinus symptoms which might cause dizziness when flying
There has been a recent thread on murmers but that may well need investigating too
It can be difficult posting if you don't know the relevance of various problems but if something is missed out the advice you receive may be incorrect
Best to discuss with your AME who should be able to advise on getting an unrestricted medical in the future
Good luck
In medicine we have to deal with the entire pathology. You can't just add another diagnosis and assume it isn't relevant.
If you have had sinus issue they will need investigating or confirmation they have resolved. Until then the symptoms you put down to unnecessary drugs might be sinus symptoms which might cause dizziness when flying
There has been a recent thread on murmers but that may well need investigating too
It can be difficult posting if you don't know the relevance of various problems but if something is missed out the advice you receive may be incorrect
Best to discuss with your AME who should be able to advise on getting an unrestricted medical in the future
Good luck
Join Date: Aug 2005
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FlyinHi: There should never be any surprises at an AME medical visit. In the future, since there are at least some questions in your case, rightly or wrongly, my advice is to make a medical appointment with an AME, for only the purpose of reviewing your case to find out if you would pass.
You'd pay that visit yourself, in cash. And do NOT fill in the 8500 form. Present your stuff, discuss how you "would" complete the application.
Then make a regular AME appointment, with either that same AME or a different one.
Sure, you spend a few dollars more: but it's you're flying future you are dealing with here.
You'd pay that visit yourself, in cash. And do NOT fill in the 8500 form. Present your stuff, discuss how you "would" complete the application.
Then make a regular AME appointment, with either that same AME or a different one.
Sure, you spend a few dollars more: but it's you're flying future you are dealing with here.
I can relate to all of this. I got caught with a high BP reading in 1987 when in all honesty it WAS high. I was burning the candle ay both ends, fast jet military flying by day and studying for ATPL at night, with associated money worries. Doc laid me in the sick bay for 30 minutes (they could do that in those days!) and it recovered. However, since then the sight of a BP machine sends shivers up my spine and I get serious white coat syndrome. I've been on treadmills and had 24hr ambulatories, seen cardiologists and never once given the same reading in the surgery as at home. I am eternally grateful to the CAA (the late AVM John Cook in particular) for their understanding but I always felt inadequate not being able to deliver the readings I could at home in their presence. Bit like always crashing the sim on landing.I don't do it for real, promise! Even the docs had to admit that if I was running their readings 24/7 there would be other signs and there were none, eyes, sugar,ECG's all normal. I am retired now and still can't get it out of my system and am on mild medication. My GP has seen to be doing something I think. My sympathies with my many colleagues who still suffer this problem
Join Date: Apr 2000
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Read today that death from heart disease has halved in the last 10 years. Maybe Vinnie Jones and complicated hospital procedures have helped somewhat, but I can't help thinking that the unsung heroes are in primary care, nagging on about high blood pressure, convincing people to take chemicals when they don't actually feel ill, sending people for blood tests etc
Long live the hypertensives.
Long live the hypertensives.
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I renewed my class 1 today (only for the 4th time in my life!) and suffer from the same white coat syndrome. The trouble is I start to worry about the BP thing about a week out (I don't know where the initial worry came from to be honest!) and the anxiety builds up.
They bring out the machine and I can feel my heart trying to escape from my chest in utter defeat. It feels very much like an adrenaline rush to me (Fight or flight type stuff). This gives me an initial reading of something like 145/89 today. The next reading after me concentrating on a my book for a bit and generally trying not to think about it is down to 127/79 (still with a 102 heart rate) and then it keeps on coming down toward the optimal reading and a normal heart rate.
It's completely illogical but I have never been hugely keen on tests and am early in my career so everything seems like a fairly big deal. Our AME is lovely and sees the panic. As has been mentioned previously, for me it's suddenly a sense of having no control over the outcome of something quite important that does it I think.
I regularly self monitor for my own peace of mind (as important as my career is to me if something is wrong with me I'd rather know about it) and am always within the "optimal to normal" range.
I think a good AME know's when they're looking at a case of hypertension and when they're looking at a prize prat like me who is scared of an arm cuff with a pump attached.
They bring out the machine and I can feel my heart trying to escape from my chest in utter defeat. It feels very much like an adrenaline rush to me (Fight or flight type stuff). This gives me an initial reading of something like 145/89 today. The next reading after me concentrating on a my book for a bit and generally trying not to think about it is down to 127/79 (still with a 102 heart rate) and then it keeps on coming down toward the optimal reading and a normal heart rate.
It's completely illogical but I have never been hugely keen on tests and am early in my career so everything seems like a fairly big deal. Our AME is lovely and sees the panic. As has been mentioned previously, for me it's suddenly a sense of having no control over the outcome of something quite important that does it I think.
I regularly self monitor for my own peace of mind (as important as my career is to me if something is wrong with me I'd rather know about it) and am always within the "optimal to normal" range.
I think a good AME know's when they're looking at a case of hypertension and when they're looking at a prize prat like me who is scared of an arm cuff with a pump attached.
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Hypertension or not?
As there seem to be some conflicting viewpoints here, can I try to simplify things?
1. The first essential is to find out whether you actually have high blood pressure or not. A good way of doing so is to select one doctor and ask him/her to put you through the CAA's algorithm for the investigation of Hypertension (available on the CAA website), part of which is to do a 24 hour BP monitoring. If your BP drops while you are asleep, then your BP is probably anxiety-related (aka white coat syndrome). If it stays raised, then you need further tests to find out if there is an underlying cause.
2. One feature of your story that I do not like is the shaky, sweaty attack that you had. It's a rare, small print cause of high BP, but is caused by the adrenal gland letting adrenaline (epinephrine) into the circulation, and tends to cause bouts of raised BP rather than constantly raised BP. It is caused by a small, treatable benign tumour on the adrenal gland which goes under the jaw-breaking name of a phaeochromocytoma. I'm not saying that's what it is, but it should be considered given your history.
Good Luck!
1. The first essential is to find out whether you actually have high blood pressure or not. A good way of doing so is to select one doctor and ask him/her to put you through the CAA's algorithm for the investigation of Hypertension (available on the CAA website), part of which is to do a 24 hour BP monitoring. If your BP drops while you are asleep, then your BP is probably anxiety-related (aka white coat syndrome). If it stays raised, then you need further tests to find out if there is an underlying cause.
2. One feature of your story that I do not like is the shaky, sweaty attack that you had. It's a rare, small print cause of high BP, but is caused by the adrenal gland letting adrenaline (epinephrine) into the circulation, and tends to cause bouts of raised BP rather than constantly raised BP. It is caused by a small, treatable benign tumour on the adrenal gland which goes under the jaw-breaking name of a phaeochromocytoma. I'm not saying that's what it is, but it should be considered given your history.
Good Luck!
