Too funny, Jana!

When you are dehydrated, your blood pressure tends to drop when you sit or stand up. If you don't fill your veins/arteries up with enough fluid, they can not fill up properly when you do something or sit/stand up. Kind of like if you took a fabric tube with any substance in it (I know, I know, dumb metaphor) and then watched as you took it from lying down or sitting to standing straight up. Gravity can draw all that stuff - or water - downward. Okay, here's one . . . it's kind of like trying to get water out of a fire hydrant into a hose when there is little water in the pipes. Oh, heck, someone come up with a better one!

Pressure in the body is different. You can have high blood pressure when there is a narrowing of an artery and low blood pressure when there is adequate or an expansion of one.

That's why I was wondering about an artery problem somewhere with you, Tyson. Your BP went up when you had the plasma. If they don't do enough tests or the right tests, like an ankle brachial index (blood pressure done on arms and ankles) or taking your BP on BOTH arms, they may miss something. A blood pressure difference between arms of greater than 10 can be a sign of an arterial narrowing. And cardiologists consider your real BP to be the one arm that is higher. A BP is not hard to do and isn't expensive.

They can also do what is called orthostatic blood pressure, where they can take your BP while you are lying down and then standing up. If the systolic/upper reading rises 20 or more, you are probably overhydrated. If it drops 20 or more, you might be dehydrated. I say probably and might because there are other reasons for it to happen such as orthostatic intolerance.

To check hydration levels, a doctor can also do BOTH a urine and serum osmolality. The reason to do both is that there is more than one reason for being either over or under hydrated.

http://www.rnceus.com/renal/renalosmo.html

And there is more than one clotting disorder out there, like Factor V Leiden.

Anyway, hypertension should ALWAYS have a differential diagnosis and workup done before a drug is thrown at someone. There are LOTS of reasons for it. And when you are on Pred, sodium is the number one culprit for raising blood pressure. And, as Lizzie and I know all too well, a high BP over a period of time leads to kidney failure (I don't have kidney failure, or low kidney function, but my Dad did).

Hope you are getting answers and feeling better, Tyson!

Annie