Extremely high blood pressure

My mom is 76 years old and has extremely high blood pressure! Her blood pressure runs 200 to 240 all the time! Her doctor just keeps adding medicenes and changing them all the time. I think she is overly medicated. He tells us if we take her to another doctor they will just tell her to take her medicene! I find that hard to believe. Need some advice before my mom has a stroke!!!!

First things first, that is definitely dangerously high BP.

As to the doctor, it sounds like he's trying to find the right combinations of medications to help bring down that BP and so far has been unsuccessful.

There are several classes of meds that are used to help bring down BP and without knowing what's pushing the BP up, it's hard to know the best classes, best drugs and best dosages. It's quite the chore.

I doubt that she's overly medicated, although it does happen. Sometimes controlling BP takes quite the drug cocktail.

Are you certain your mother is actually TAKING her medicines? It's not at all uncommon for the elderly to not take medicines, especially after they become confused about them; opting to flush them down the sink or toilet rather than face trying to sort out the confusion, or deciding that they aren't going to do them any good.

Also, make sure that your mother is not sabotaging the problem by consuming high amounts of salt. The maximum salt she should get in one day is about 1200 mg ... that's basically a total of 1 single teaspoon (5ml) The sure way to sabotage that is to eat salty prepared foods ... canned soups tend to be ludicrously high in sodium.

If you're not happy with what the doctor is doing, then by all means get her to another doctor. I'm not sure that a new doctor will just tell her to "keep taking the meds [you're already on]" but certainly will continue to try to get her BP under control with meds and try to find a reason for the high BP. Go to a new doctor for a second opinion. If you like him, ask him about changing to him. If you don't have faith in your doctor, nothing he does is going to make you feel comfortable.

Now the big problem when you're dealing with someone elderly and depending on the laws where you live, the doctor may not tell you very much without your mother's permission, and may not seek it either. One way around this is to get a power of attorney for care. In this way you're authorized to supervisor her care and ensure that you understand what's going on and what the doctor's actually telling her.