Pressure to change

Until recently, I have not been good about making regular visits for medical care or checkups. Two years ago, after a period of not feeling well, I decided it was time to find a local primary care provider. Plus, my boss at the time had been a nurse practitioner and more or less ordered me to go see a medical professional.

So, I made an appointment through a local medical clinic and went in for a checkup as a followup to some sever and ongoing bouts of dizziness and nausea I had been experiencing. As my appointment began, a nurse made me get on a scale and got my weight, then took me into an examination room to take other vitals. She took my blood pressure, but it took a couple of attempts to get a reading and the expression on her face was not reassuring. She didn't tell me what she was thinking, or what she knew, but I knew it was not good.

I thought perhaps my blood pressure was a bit high because I was nervous about seeing a medical professional for the first time in many years. And the primary care provider I had been assigned was a woman, as well, which made me nervous because I had never had a female doctor/care provider.

I few minutes later the nurse practitioner came in and took my blood pressure again. Then she told me she was cutting my initial examination short because she was going to send me down the hall to the attached hospital and to the emergency room. My blood pressure was too high and needed immediate attention. As I was preparing to get up to walk over the the hospital, she instructed me to wait because they were going to send me over in a wheel chair.

That news did not help me relax or ease my anxiety.

I soon found myself in an exam room in the ER. Staff members were shaving spots of check hair was a dry razor to attach heart monitoring equipment, There were more blood pressure checks, including being attached to a machine that periodically took my blood pressure on its own. Then here was intravenous medication. And a littany of questions. I don't remember them all, but I was asked it I had any check pains several different ways.

After while, when the staff had more confidence I wasn't actively having a heart attack or a stroke, I was left alone in the exam room for periods of time to let the medication do its work. During one of those moments of peace, interupted only by the beating of the heart monitor and the occassional inflation of the blood pressure cuff, I decised I wanted to see what the monitor behind me and above my head was indicating, so I took a picture of it with my cell phone, since I couldn't turn around with all the wires and tubes and equipment securing me to the examination chair. I managed to get a photo that was clear enough for me to read the numbers, but I certainly had no clue what the readings meant.

After several hours, the numbers had improved enough that I was discharged. I don't recall the exact order of events and what directions I got from the ER doctor and which I got from subsequent visits to my new primary care provider.

But over the last 2 years, I have been prescribed medications for blood pressure, cholesteral some pre-diabetic symptoms, had blood drawn for tests multiple times, been assigned to a specialist to make sure my kidneys weren't damaged by the high blood pressure, had follow-up visits with my eye doctor to check for blood pressure related eye damage.

I own my own blood pressure monitor now and take my readings twice a day. I've also lost more than 30 pounds in body weight. I'm keeping my blood pressure under control, generally feeling better physically and keeping up with regular medical visits.

I thought I had made note of the initial BP reading they charted at the medical clinic, but I can't find it right now. But you can see from the picture of the monitor that the reading after I had been receiving IV blood pressure medication -- and the numbers started coming down -- was 186/118. The initial reading I got at home after getting my own blood pressure monitor was 207/119. The website I use that tells me what my number mean tells me those number are "Way too high" and a "hypertensive crisis". This morning, my numbers were 125/76, which the website describes as "ideal" and "normal."

I learned later that the reason I was sent to the ER by wheelchair was that the clinic staff was concerned I might have a stroke at any moment. That shocked me a bit, but I didn't quite know how to gauge that. I got a new perspective on just how dangerous that likely was earlier this year when two high-profile individuals, Luke Perry and John Singleton where were both close to my age, died of stokes. Perry died in March and Singleton died in April following massive strokes.

It's a bit of a dubious anniversary, but it is also the date I began to start paying attention to my health, probably for the first time in my life.

  

Excuse me, Mr. President, but that was my foot you stepped on

I had a strange dream. I was in an auditorium sitting in a row with several members of my family. My brothers were there and my Aunt Barb and Uncle Bill. The auditorium was attached to a local truck stop that's about 2 miles from my house.

Up on the stage President Trump was speaking. I'm not sure what he was talking about. I don't remember any of the details of what he said. But as he finished speaking everyone was getting up to leave, as was I, and I had my foot out into the aisle. I turn toward the stage and find myself face-to-face with the president, who is walking toward me. And he steps on my foot. And then he was gone.

I woke up shortly after that.

I rarely remember dreams, but this one has stuck with me today. Not sure why. It was silly and made so sense. So I thought maybe if I wrote it down it would let go of its hold on me.

We apologize for the delay

This is the first post I've made to this blog in more than 7 years. To be honest, I forgot I even had, or created, this blog. I rediscovered it tonight.

A while back, after posting some photos and posts on Facebook, a friend recommended that I start a blog or something to capture some of those posts and observations somewhere other than Facebook. I wasn't ready to do that at the time, so I didn't look into it. But lately, I've been thinking about it more, and decided maybe I should do something about it.

I used to keep a journal with some regularity, but I haven't done that in a very long time. But there has been a lot going on in my life lately, and it my head, and perhaps I could use an outlet for expression for that ... stuff. And maybe some photos too. Although to be honest, I haven't done much photography lately. So, we'll see what happens.

But it's good to know that I don't have to completely start from scratch. There's some infrastructure in place.