Sofia! ? for Dr Michael
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Sofia! ? for Dr Michael
| Wed, 09-20-2006 - 5:31pm |
Sofia, could you please ask your dh what a normal resting heart rate should be for me pretty please?
| Wed, 09-20-2006 - 5:31pm |
Sure, no problem Jessie. I'll ask him as soon as he gets home. He should be home any minute (I hope!!).
(((Hugs))) to you! Try not to worry!!
Sofia
Jessie: Michael says normal resting heart rate in an adult is between 60-100 beats per minute. Below 60 is called "bradycardia" and is a slow heart rate. Above 100 is called "tacycardia" and is a fast heart rate. He said there are a lot of reasons that can make it fast, and in and of itself it doesn't do anything to your heart to beat fast, but what happens when it's too fast is that the coronary arteries don't have enough time between beats to fill, so they don't feed the heart muscle with enough blood, and eventually that damages the heart. He says therefore, it's important to get it lowered. But there are good medications out there to do just that, so he says DON'T WORRY!! Those same meds will also lower your blood pressure.
He wondered what meds you were already on, and the dosage, but I couldn't remember what you said. You don't have to answer that if you don't want.
He also says you can measure your own pulse, and here's how he says to do it: Get a watch with a second hand. Find the long thin tendon that goes down the *inside* of the center of your wrist. With your opposite hand, take your 2 first fingers and place them to the THUMB side of that tendon and press down, right below your hand, until you find your pulse. You should be able to feel it. He says this is your RADIAL PULSE. Then count the beats for 15 seconds, timing it on your watch, and multiply that number by 4. This will give you your heart rate (beats per minute).
If you can't find your pulse in your wrist, he says you can find it in the inside of your elbow, too, almost dead center, but slightly off center to the pinky side. This is your BRACHIAL PULSE, and sometimes it's easier to feel than the radial pulse, he says. If you can't find your pulse in your arms, he says you can always feel your CAROTID PULSE in your neck, on either side of your voice box. But don't compress both of your carotid arteries at once, just do one side at a time, or you might pass out, he says. And don't press too hard, because these are the arteries that feed your brain. He says you can take your pulse using your thumb, too, instead of your fingers if that's easier, and that it's just a myth that you have an artery running down the pad of your thumb that will skew your results. He says there's no artery there, LOL!
Good luck. We'll say a prayer for you at the doctor's tomorrow. Please please please let us know what happens.
Hugs,
Sofia and Dr Michael
Sorry, Jessie, we didn't know you had a medical background! TMI for you. Maybe someone else can use it though. . .
Michael says 25 mg is a very low dose of Atenolol. He says do you take it all at once, or cut the pill in half? If you take it all at once, he suggests you might try halving it, and giving yourself half in the AM and half in the PM so that you are getting a more constant dosage of the meds into your system. But he says to definitely follow the sig on the prescription (your doctor's instructions) if she/he said otherwise (and he is reading over my shoulder as I write these emails, too, to make sure I tell you the right things, LOL!)
Again, sorry if we made you feel stupid assuming you didn't know how to take your pulse when you did. A lot of people don't know, and Michael just thought that would be a lot easier than doing it at the store machines all the time.
Good luck, and let us know what happens!
Sofia & Michael