My girlfriend has had a problem over the last week and has been to the er and urgent care and none of the physicians can pinpoint exactly was is wrong with her.



It all started when she had a headache that was felt on the left side of her head and a piercing feeling in her left eye. The first doctor gave her a spinal tap, ct scan and found nothing really abnormal. Also, her blood pressure spiked up to 150 over 104 all of a sudden. Tests for meningitis came back negative, which was their original thought, and the neurologist said she didn’t appear to have anything wrong with her brain. I.E. Stroke, blood clotting.



She was let out of the hospital and said that the pain in her left eye had stopped, but she still had felt a headache (most likely from the spinal tap).



Two days later she was very dizzy while working (she works in a hospital) and her blood pressure was taken which was high again (160 was the highest). Later in the day I took her to urgent care where her bp measurement had reached the highest point at 190 over 107. They gave her a shot to lower the readings resulting in a 140 range and wrote her a prescription for atenolol and she had taken it before bed.



However this morning she is still is complaining about the headache and has taken the med once again and now has to return to the hospital.



My girlfriend is fairly active, half african american and is in relatively in good shape (maybe 40 pounds overweight, but still healthy) and does not have a family history of hbp. She doesn’t smoke, drink alcohol and rarely drinks caffeine, but she does drink sodas and flavored water quite a bit. She is very busy at work and will skip meals sometimes.

What could be causing the sudden spike and the headaches?

Thank you for your help!