Questions about pregnancy and possible high blood pressure?

i'm 28w 3d. i have had 3 pretty bad headaches since last week; none of which have been helped by tylenol, massages, or cool/warm compresses. the only way i can get relief is to hopefully fall asleep, and sometimes thats next to impossible because the pain can be pretty bad. on friday night i woke up around 2 or 3 am (well saturday morning i guess if you want to be technical),my head was pounding and the right side of my face was numb.
yesterday, we went to the grocery store (its kind of like walmart) and we just slowly cruised the aisle picking up things we need. we were in no rush and were taking our time. i decided i would check my blood pressure at one of the things near the pharmacy- i was shocked to see my blood pressure was 154/108, and my heart rate was 111. i went back a little later and my pressure was 147/99.
how accurate are those machines that take your blood pressure? should i bother calling my dr or see if it happens again? should i be concerned at all?

i didn't know if our stroll around the store would cause my blood pressure to go up (with carrying the extra 20 pounds from the baby). again, we were leisurely walking through the store.

those machines are fairly accurate. they are certified machines. (used to talk to the tech when i worked in a grocery store).

with a dystolic pressure of over 90+, that's a reason to be concerned. i'd at the very least call the doctor and ask what's going on.
the last thing, you should have no protein in your urine. If you do, it's a sign of kidney malfunction. So don't be too concerned with that at all.

Call your doctor.

I think you need to get yourself a home BP monitor and take it at home several times a day.

The Lakeside Collection has them fairly inexpensive ($20.00).

Bother calling your doctor? GO MAKE AN APPOINTMENT NOW!

Yes, see a doctor. Why? 2 reasons, intractable headaches (head aches not cured by taking over the counter medication) and hypertension). This can either be PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) or pre-eclampsia. Only going to a doctor will they be able to assess if it's pre-eclampsia. They will do several tests which include a 24 hour urine collection to determine if protein is present in you urine (presence of protein indicates pre-eclampsia). It is important that you see a doctor as it can affect the outcome of your pregnancy.

As for the accuracy of the electronic BP monitors, it depends on the size of the BP cuff that goes around our arm. If it was too tight/loose (large/small) it can give a false reading. But, the fact that you gave some good background information about your headaches, and no relief from tylenol kind of supports the blood pressure measurement that you have listed there. So I would have the say that the measurement seems to be accurate and supportive of your symptoms.

All the best, and congratulations

If you measure your blood pressure and it's that high again I would suggest calling your doctor. It doesn't hurt getting a professional opinion. I was getting really bad migraines around 18-21 weeks. The doctor gave me some medication and suggested having a little bit of caffeine ... it helped. If protein shows up in urine during pregnancy it could indicate pre-eclampsia so no protein is good. Good luck!