DOT PHYSICAL

Yes. I used to be normal, then high normal, now high—but except for stressful times (like white coat syndrome), my numbers haven’t changed—only the standard (3x in 20ish years I believe).

and last year they gave me meds. First choice didn’t work well in my system, second attempt caused me such discomfort—tight chest, chest pain, cough (not good in Covid times lol!) that the physician who supervises my nurse practitioner stepped in and ordered me off it totally, and told me to be prepared to go to the hospital if symptoms didn’t subside in 12 or so hours.

First, do no harm indeed.

 

BTW a trucker I know has issues with his bp being just a few points over, still within 5 points, he experimented with drinking beet juice and testing on his home cuff and drank enough before his appointment to lower it by about ten points.

 

You guys having blood pressure issues should do a 3 days water fast before your test. Yea it's not easy but the results are better than drinking some magic potion or doing any meds.

 

DOT/CDL Physical Exams, Drug & Alcohol Testing | NRCME Training (teamcme.com)

 

"3 days water fast" IMO is an exceptionally bad idea. That's actually getting close to a level of dehydration that can cause death. Although I believe you are partially right in the sense that being dehydrated will lead to having a lower BP than the reverse. But be sensible.

My advice would be, first, if a person can afford it, get a good quality home BP monitor and try to find out whether you actually have hypertension or not. Because white coat syndrome is exceedingly common, even among tough he-men truck drivers. And no medical professional these days seems to have the time or interest anymore to try and find out the truth. Presumably including most DOT examiners, as well.

- If you do suffer from white coat syndrome, you might try a) making sure that you relax for 15 minutes or so at the examiners before letting them take a reading (CVS Minute Clinics even advise doing this), b) make sure that you breathe very deeply - but don't obviously hyperventilate - for 1 minute or so before the reading is taken (I read about this technique here, and it really works for me!), or c) consider going into one of these clinics and first paying them to take a series of BP readings on you. Just tell them that you want to get an accurate picture of your BP situation - which is true - and don't even mention your DOT physical at this point. Then if you do get the readings you need, go ahead and request the physical next. Or if not, leave. Then go get some professional help before trying again.

- If you actually are hypertensive, I'd suggest reading up on it. There's loads of information out there on what you can do about high blood pressure. And then if you're like most people, you should see a doctor. But lastly, if you truly are scientifically inclined - say including up to the point of knowing how and where you can run diagnostic bloodwork on yourself, and how to understand dosing measurements, etc. - then there are places where you can fairly safely and reliably buy mail order drugs (but not narcotics) with no questions asked. I'm not going to link anything, but a person could, for example, try googling 'pharmacia del nino'. But for god's sake, please don't try this at home if you are some sort of high school drop out, patriot survivalist, invermectin quaffing moron.

 

Your closing rim shot is kind of funny, since Ivermectin is a legitimate drug for humans, was originally developed for humans, and the makers were awarded a Nobel Prize for it. Additionally, Pfizer is in the process of developing a protease inhibiting antiviral for the treatment of COVID-19. Ivermectin happens to be a protease inhibitor. Covid-19 Antiviral Efforts | Pfizer

Finally, you are advocating that people treat themselves with drugs they find on the internet, but then take a swipe at people who may be doing the same thing with respect to other medical issues. Seems extremely hypocritical.

 

Invermectin has been widely reported as having zero proven efficacy for treating covid-19, whereas mainstream drugs used to treat hypertension often have decades of human studies backing up their use. So I'd say the equivalence you drew is not a strong one. But yes, I was taking a shot and there was no need for that - sorry.

One thing I will mention, though, is the possibility of unqualified authorities - if a driver does seek legitimate drug treatment for mild hypertension from a doctor - then making unfounded rushes to judgement about that drivers possibly fainting behind the wheel from their use (i.e. syncope). When in fact this side effect is apparently exceedingly rare, is almost always confined to people who also have serious heart disease, and who even then only have it happen directly after standing up from a lying down position. I really don't know if this has actually become a problem (yet), but these sorts of abuses of power do scare me. For example like the state DOT authorities in Minnesota who (until they were sued by OOIDA and stopped) were accusing drivers of being unfit to drive because of exhaustion if they found nudie magazines in their cabs. Or if the drivers had bunks that were made up and appeared not to have been slept in. Or the more current racket arising during physicals to hound, extort, and then rob drivers using unfounded accusations of their having sleep apnea.

So I do think there are valid reasons for not wanting to be officially labeled as being "hypertensive". And especially so if you're darn well not.

 

I got a CDL physical today, my initial reading was 140/something. It was done by a machine, the doc looked at the reading and said the machine usually reads high, so he did it the old fashioned way and my bp was much lower.

 

Last time I went to my primary doc, the tech (a new girl) put the BP cuff on my forearm between my wrist and elbow, then started pumping it up.

"You got it on wrong." I told her.

"That's how this one works", she says, then puts her stethoscope on my wrist and keeps pumping.

"258 over 150" she says, leaves the room.

The door opens, I see the regular tech peering in at me, her eyes big as saucers.

"You feeling alright?" she asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. She took it wrong."

So she smiles and says, "I'll take it again in about 15 minutes. Think of rainbows and unicorns".

I make a conscious effort to chill, do some deep breathing exercises, etc.

The experienced tech comes back.

"Okay, Mister Rainbows and Unicorns, you ready?"

"Yep. I'm ready."

So she stretches my right hand across the desk, applies the cuff properly, gets her stethoscope ready, then sits down to get to work........

.......and in so doing, accidentally drops her wonderfully formed and beautifully firm left boob into the palm of my right hand.

She doesn't seem to notice. I can't move my right hand without making the situation obvious, and I'm just hoping she gets her reading quickly......


"134 over 32. Good enough".

And out she goes.......

 

I'm not sure where everything is going to play out. I know India is all in on Ivermectin. I'm not discounting anything right now. This is all too new.

Also, I agree that these physicals (DOT and FAA) can be way overreaching and conservative. The whole Sleep Apnea push recently has been ridiculous.

Thanks for giving people info on the hypertension issue.