Hi, everybody.
Given how important blood pressure tracking is for us--both during the donor approval process, and for post-donation follow-up--I'll share the following experience:
My doctor has often found my pressure to be borderline high, or even, actually, a bit "over the line" for hypertension...but nobody else finds my BP high. Not in the hospital, not when I give blood, not when I get it measured by nurses at my HMO. People immediately suggest "white-coat hypertension", in which patients are frightened of going to the doctor, and therefore show up with high BP readings. I've always discounted that, because I'm friendly with my doc, and feel totally comfortable with him.
I think I've finally gotten to the bottom of this mystery. A nurse pointed out that a normal-size BP cuff may be too small for my arm, and the squeezing artificially raises my BP. My doc has only a standard-size cuff, while a larger cuff seems not to produce high BP measures for me.
Therefore, if you're ever told you have high BP, you might suggest trying a larger cuff.
Be well, Snoopy