For reference, I charted a day or so of Zoe’s blood pressure, based mostly on Michelle’s record of her periodic BP tests. Originally I had intended this to be for us to look over rather than to publish here, but in the interest of documenting what we’re looking at, here it is.

Please note, this is just my and Michelle’s notes converted to a chart, not anything from the medical staff and shouldn’t be taken as such. Also, the “Normal” blood pressure for infants is somewhat variable, I chose a number in the normal range for reference.

Factors currently affecting her BP:

  • Cyclosporine levels, which have varied from too high to too low as the doctors work toward finding a dose that remains steady
  • Vfend potentially interacting with the cyclosporine, causing it to be difficult to properly dose
  • Time of day: when she’s asleep her BP tends to be down somewhat
  • Mood: when she’s upset, which happens fairly often during the BP cuff application, she can push it up somewhat; this is not universal though, some of her best test numbers have come when she was fussing
  • Dexamethasone levels; she’s on a reduced dose and it will be reduced again soon, but the steroid itself pushes her BP up