White Coat Hypertension and scared...

[CarmsOU25]

I've known for a few years that I suffer from white coat hypertension and experience anxiety when it comes to any sort of "test". I graduated from an accelerated BSN program in July of '07 and then went on to work at a job I just loved in Women's Health. Life was good... I had my license, loved my job, and my last BP reading at the doctor in Oklahoma was normal. My husband is in the Air Force though, so we just relocated to Okinawa, Japan in April. It's beautiful here and plenty of sight-seeing to do, but it has been a stressful adjustment at times. You can't spend all day relaxing at the beach, even though that would be nice. I haven't found a job yet, so I have a lot of free time on my hands, which I'm not used to. I am working on an application for a nursing job and am going to be volunteering with the Red Cross soon, which will keep me busier.

Anyway, my birth control prescription is about to run out, so I went to the military clinic last week on one of their refill days to take care of it. They proceed to tell me that they don't have the pills I use and that they might not be able to order it. I ask them for a generic or different brand and they make me an appt for 2 weeks later (when I'll already be out of pills, haha). So, by this time, I'm a little stressed and ready to leave when I find out that they need to do a physical/health history.... umm alright. Before I even sit down and get comfortable in the chair, the tech/med asst has a BP cuff on me and I get a reading of like 150/95 due to nervousness. I was not expecting a physical and had just been told that my prescription couldn't be refilled, so I knew that this reading was a product of my nerves. I asked if they could wait a few minutes and redo my pressure when I calmed down. No, they wanted me to come in for a 5 consecutive day hypertension screening. Well, great.

So everyday that I have come into the clinic, I get high readings. Today, I really tried to do some different breathing techniques in the waiting room, but then they move me to a different exam room and the nervousness takes over. First reading was 142/94. Then, the guy talked to me for a minute and the reading in my left arm was 124/82. Finally! Well, then he said "That's really odd? That's a big difference." He seems bewildered when I tell him that I suffer from anxiety when I'm "the patient" and having any kind of test done. He almost couldn't believe that a RN could have this problem. Well sorry, I am human! Then he tells me that more than likely they will want to put me on blood pressure medication.

I just don't know what to do. I speak with the actual doctor next week and I have all of my pressures I've taken at home manually documented for them to review. My average BP at home is around 117/79. I also have an Omron monitor that I bought here in order to have more "evidence" that I don't suffer from high BP chronically. I even took a reading after I left the clinic to show that it was higher than normal at that particular time.

I'm so very frustrated about this though. I'm in a new place halfway across the world and unfortunately my husband is a pilot and busy (if not deployed) a lot of the time and cannot accompany me to appts like this. We are wanting to start a family while we are here, but now I'm worried about what the OB clinic will say about my situation. I do realize that I need to get my anxiety under control during times of stress and I'm working on it. They just don't seem to belive me and look at me like I'm a crazy person when I try to explain that I have anxiety when I'm being tested. It's like a bad cycle. Tomorrow is my last reading and I hope I can at least have one day where my pressures are low.