Taught that the diastolic reading (the bottom number) represents the pressure on the blood vessel wall while the heart is at rest.
Instructed patient you can do many things to help control your blood pressure at home, including: Eat a heart-healthy diet, including potassium and fiber, and drink plenty of water, exercise regularly at least 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, limit the amount of sodium (salt) you eat and aim for less than 1,500 mg per day. Reduce stress by trying to avoid things that cause you stress.
Instructed patient and caregiver on Hypertensive urgency which is a situation where the blood pressure is severely elevated or higher for your diastolic pressure. That experiencing hypertensive urgency may or may not experience one or more of these symptoms: severe headache, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, and severe anxiety, chest pain, back pain, numbness/weakness, change in vision, difficulty speaking do not wait to see if your pressure comes down on its own. Seek immediately medical assistance and/or call 9-1-1.
SN instructed patient and caregiver on hypertensive urgency which is a situation where the blood pressure is severely elevated and that experiencing hypertensive urgency may or may not experience one or more of these symptoms: severe headache, shortness of breath, nosebleeds, and severe anxiety, chest or back pain, numbness or severe weakness, change in vision or difficulty speaking. Patient and caregiver were advised to seek immediately medical assistance and/or call 9-1-1 if any of these signs or symptoms appear. Patient and caregiver verbalized understanding. Family is independent with hypertension process.
SN explained that long standing hypertension leads to heart damage that is called heart failure. This means your heart "fails" to pump your blood to your body effectively. You may notice swelling in your extremities, that you are easily fatigued with normal activity, and weight gain. Any of these symptoms or worsening of them should be reported to SN or MD.