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Has anyone else had to wear a 24 hour ambulatory blood pressure monitor? If so, did you experience any difficulties with it?
I have just completed 24 hours with one on and to be honest I feel quite traumatised by the whole experience. Every time a reading was taken, I experienced such excruciating pain that it made me cry. I was so tense waiting for the next episode, that my BP must have been permanently sky high, so I am sure my readings will be false. I did not go to sleep AT ALL because I was in so much pain each time the reading was taken and when the cuff was finally taken off, there were (and still are) red welts on my arm.
I wrote all this down on the diary they gave me to complete and mentioned it to the technician at the hospital, but I think they just thought I was a bit of a moaner.
Is this normal? Anyone else had a similar experience? I feel quite upset and tearful about it. I know there are worse things to have to undergo - but nobody warned me it would be this bad, so I can't help thinking something was not quite right.
Sounds like you didn't have a good size of cuff. I'm not sure how useful they are really - I've had 24 hour monitoring a couple of times, and the disturbed nights alone were certainly enough to make it go up, although it should be set to only read every couple of hours overnight to minimise disturbance. And the conclusion from mine: inconclusive!! I'd have taken it off, I think you were very brave to keep going if it was that bad!
Yes I did a few years ago, I got no sleep whatsoever as it went off every 2 hours, my arm was severely bruised (I have big arms, and as it got tighter it pinched) and to top it all, none of it registered, so it was a total waste of time !!
Thank you for your reassuring replies. It wasn't just me then!
I did hear that the number of readings was supposed to decrease overnight, but mine were every 1/2 hour until about 2.30 and then every hour until about 8.00 am. Horrible.
Anyway as you both say, I shall be astounded if this test comes up with anything conclusive, so I shall just put it down to a bad experience.
Thanks again.