I'm officially middle aged

I went to the doctor this week for my annual exam. I've felt fine and the only medication I'm on is a seasonal allergy pill so I expected my doctor to refill that and send me on my way.

No such luck.

My blood pressure was much higher than normal(148/98) which confused both the doctor and I since I don't drink, smoke, eat salty foods or tip the scale in the obesity range. She decided to put me on a diuretic and told me to check it again in a few days.

Since I work in a hospital, a friend of my sister's volunteered to re-check it for me. Much to my surprise, it had gone up even higher and was now 188/100.

Now, I admit, I am one of those people who get "white coat anxiety" when I'm in a doctor's office but that didn't come into play in this instance. There were no doctors present, just a friendly nurse in Betty Boop scrubs.

"That is a fairly high reading, so for liability purposes I need to tell you that if you get a severe headache, chest pains or shortness of breath, you must go to the emergency room immediately."

So, of course, on the way back to my office, I was sure that I was experiencing one, if not all, of these symptoms and this song was going through my head:


How did I go from being perfectly healthy two days ago to having a "condition" today?

When I got to my office, I started to make a mental list of all the friends I wanted to call to say goodbye to but first, I called my doctor who decided to start me on another pill as a treatment.

Oh geez. Now I need treatment for my "condition".

I suppose it could be stress since I do have a history of anxiety. When I was a child, I never knew if a toy left on the floor or a wrong answer to a question would unleash a torrent of venom or reward me with a new bruise. To calm my hysterics before my father came home, I would take shelter in my mother's little helper. Now before you judge, my mother always broke the pill in half and usually only gave it to me on days that ended in 'y'.

And, yes, in the last 10 years, I've thought I was having a heart attack a few times that just turned out to be anxiety. But that was the old Chrissy. The one who dated abusive men, thrived on drama and game playing and drank too much to dull the pain.

I'm an older, wiser Chrissy now. I have no patience for any of it. I love my calm, simple life so this whole blood pressure thing is a conundrum.

Oh geez, now this is going through my head:

I'm comin' Elizabeth!