My husband, Ken, has been taking midodrine for almost two years now. He has
shy-drager syndrome in addition to PD. When he stands up, his blood pressure
can drop to 60/20 in seconds and he will probably pass out. If he lies flat
on his back, his blood pressure rises to 220/110 also within seconds. We aim
to get his daytime sitting blood pressure to stay around 170/90 to make it
possible for him to take a thirty point drop immediately upon standing. For a
number of years we accomplished this with florinef and salt and fluids, but
eventually that was not enough and midodrine came on the market. He now takes
all the rest and midodrine, and he rarely passes out anymore. He takes the
last midodrine at least four hours before bedtime and sleeps with his head
raised to keep the nighttime BP as low as possible, but it is usually quite
high anyway. It seems to me that if a PWP has both high and low BP at
different times that he doesn't have the kind of high BP that should be
brought down with meds. At least that is what our doctors say. People with
shy-drager syndrome seldom have strokes(but not never) from their high BP, but
their low BP can cause head injuries- my husband fell once and was
hospitalized for ten days with cranial bleeding. That's when the shy-dragers
was diagnosed. He has had stitches too many times to tell. Now he has a full-
time helper who stands by him whenever he stands up to be sure he's not going
down. He has had parkinsons diagnosed for 17 years and shy-dragers for 7
years diagnosed.
Barbar Smith,CG/Ken
