Tyson, I am sorry if I'm ever too emphatic or blunt. I simply don't like the attitude you're getting that "Oh, yeah, we did these tests, they were fine so you are fine." That's total BS.

It's one more reason you should NOT be exercising!!! It doesn't matter what is causing a high BP. And I simply don't understand why the cardiologist is not addressing that. Maybe your young age again. Do you know how soon your BP went up? Did it go up slowly?

Again, I think you need to see all of these results yourself. Really look at them and think about them. It stinks that you have to do that but I honestly believe that we patients can see things that doctors might not be able to, whether that's due to prejudice or pooh-poohing or whatever. And it's a great primer for medical school.

My cardiologist knew that renal artery stenosis absolutely needed to be ruled out in my case. A nephrologist (kidney doc) ran the test. It's a specialized test, not the regular type of ultrasound, and there are only a few people who know how to do it and do it well. Again, it's a duplex ultrasound of the kidneys and their arteries. They measure the size of the kidneys too.

And you always have to look to drugs you are on for any symptoms. It's possible that the drugs or a combo of them are causing a high BP. Do you know if your BP was high before the drugs? Before Accutane?

What is interesting about the whole ECG monitoring and chest pains is that an ECG doesn't always show a "cause" of chest pains. If your heart is structurally fine, that's good. But it still doesn't give an answer. I'm still betting on this being more than one thing. You do have thicker blood, probably mainly due to the Accutane. So staying hydrated is a must.

Why hasn't anyone even thought to say, "Hey, Tyson, why don't you keep some baby aspirin around?" You need to get the okay on that one but bring it up. And what about BP drugs? They may actually make things worse. And going off of BP drugs can spike your BP. It's ALWAYS best to figure out what is causing a medical problem before throwing drugs at it. Well, there are lots of exceptions to that. Like people having a heart attack or stroke.

Didn't your doc say to GO IN when you were having chest pains?!!!

I wish I were smarter. Maybe I could help more. This is basic stuff, though, that a cardiologist should be addressing. I wish I could find the PDF for the differential diagnosis for hypertension. Try Googling that and see what you find. It was very helpful to me when I had my high BP, which I don't have any more!

I'm doing ok. Saw my neuro today and it's hard to realize that I'm stuck between a doc and a hard place (MG). I can't do more drugs, so I have to deal with not doing what I want and balancing life with Mestinon. Not very happy today but I'll get over it.

Annie