Well, I went to the duty doctor - a rather frustrating exercise in futility. My own doctor knows me so well, she would have understood my fear and concern. This doctor (a very young man) took my blood pressure and listened to my heart and told me everything was perfect and there was no need for concern. The bp reading was still significantly higher than my normal, but he assured me there was no concern...and then told me that I should have gone to emergency instead, since they would have been able to do an ekg and bloodwork.

But one interesting tidbit came out of the visit - he said that one of the things that raises bp in women my age is menopause - the drastic drop in estrogen can trigger higher blood pressure. That made a lot of sense in my case. I still intend to investigate it further with my own doctor, but am not as apprehensive. Hubby left his bp monitor with me; we took it when I had another dizzy spell, and my bp was not as high as it has been, so it's possible something else is at play here.

Anyway, thank you all for your concern. I was frightened last night but felt safe inside your prayers!

PS My brother just switched ISP's, and we're already noticing a good improvement - so hopefully I'll be here later on this evening after my brother goes to bed!