Hemochromatosis Support Group
Hemochromatosis is a hereditary disease characterized by improper processing by the body of dietary iron which causes iron to accumulate in a number of body tissues, eventually causing organ dysfunction. It is the main iron overload disorder. Hemochromatosis is notorious for having symptoms that are often initially misattributed to other diseases.
Ok, so I am young (24) with no prior history of hypertension. I went to get a phlebotomy today, I took a baby aspirin earlier because normally it is difficult for me to fill a bag in less than 20 min. Well, the nurse did not take my blood pressure beforehand, and started the phlebotomy.
Well, I filled that bag in about 5 minutes.....and like halfway through I felt like I was going to pass out, was nauseated, whooshing sound in my head. I felt bad for at least a half hour, I just asked the nurse if she could take my blood pressure. surprisingly it was 145/87! and my resting pulse was 101! I had just been hanging out in the chair.
She took it again about 15 minutes later and it had dropped to about 130/80....HR: 90. I feel like I have been ran over. I am not sure what happened....Has anyone on here had this happen before? I can't decide if my blood pressure was high before the blood draw, or the blood draw caused it to spike....
Well, I filled that bag in about 5 minutes.....and like halfway through I felt like I was going to pass out, was nauseated, whooshing sound in my head. I felt bad for at least a half hour, I just asked the nurse if she could take my blood pressure. surprisingly it was 145/87! and my resting pulse was 101! I had just been hanging out in the chair.
She took it again about 15 minutes later and it had dropped to about 130/80....HR: 90. I feel like I have been ran over. I am not sure what happened....Has anyone on here had this happen before? I can't decide if my blood pressure was high before the blood draw, or the blood draw caused it to spike....
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However it is possible to have an increase (back to normal level typically). This is due to your bodies "autoregulation" of your blood pressure, which is what I suspect probably occurred to you. If a person suffers severe trauma e.g. in a car accident the body senses blood loss (hemorrhagic shock) & then tries to counteract this in several ways, e.g. it can constrict blood veins, increase hear rate as it tries to get your BP levels back to normal. The body can react like this when it looses as little as 10% of blood or as high as about 20%. They typically take about 8% when phleb'ing us, the smaller we are the higher the % taken so it's possible some of us may be quite close to the level where the body may react (If you are small they should take less blood than typical so you stay around the 8% zone).
However I do not think your body will normally increase your BP above your normal level, as I understand it, so there could be another reason. Though as you hadn't lost a leg or similar maybe this is why your BP ended up higher. Your body reacted due to the high rate of blood loss only to find that you had not lost that much blood.
I passed out on about my 5th phleb, probably due to them taking blood too fast, it took me 2hrs before I could leave (resulting in a parking ticket!!!). I was & still am very quick to phleb (under 5mins) but have not passed out since. Weeks later another nurse said having the tourniquet too tight could have been the cause of me passing out (the nurse who did me that 5th time didn't normally do the phlebs .......). BTW I'm not small as I'm over 6' tall & they took 450ml, so it can happen to any of us.
I take fish oil regularly so don't need to take baby aspirin, but I thought those who did only take half a baby aspirin (or do they mean it was half a normal dose). Maybe you should only take half a baby aspirin (though I don't believe a single aspirin works as you need to take them for a week or so for blood thinning effects, I read). Inow always insist on being fully reclined. Nurse also said you MUST tell nurse as soon as you feel light headed so they can take action to stop u passing out etc
Man, did I feel terrible after I got home that day! I will have to tell them to slow it down next time