I'm officially middle aged

Sunday, April 5, 2009

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!

8 comments

  1. You must be feeling better? (Hopefully) I didn't get a good-bye call.

    Or maybe (gasp) I'm not on your 'friends to call' list! Now I'll have to get MY blood pressure checked!

    :-)

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  2. Well I didn't feel bad before. No, you're definitely on the list. Who else would help me pick out my burial outfit?

    ReplyDelete
  3. This was freaking funny and now I can't get that bloody song out of my head thanks Chrissy....your great.

    Huggs
    JB

    Hey red wine is good for the health try it...lol.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi JB,

    I'm sorry. I know that song is like a bad penny. It just won't go away.

    Thanks for the advice about the wine. I better go try that right now!

    Thanks for stopping by. See you again~ :-)

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  5. OMG, Chrissy...even in the midst of your conundrum, you're hysterical!

    Like you....I get "white coat anxiety" too!!

    And can you believe I actually went to school to become a medical assistant and was thinking about becoming a P.A.?

    Hey listen, I agree with JB...a half a glass of red wine at night is very healthy. And you can tell from my previous post, that only a half a glass of wine made me shitfaced.

    So maybe that's why it's so healthy!?

    hahahahaaha!

    Anyway, my friend....I'm sure this blood pressure thing will level out. I mean, you DO look the picture of health!

    Hope you had a great weekend!

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  6. Hi Ron,

    No, I absolutely can't believe you actually went to school to be an MA. I think one of the first posts of yours I read was about that. At least you got some funny stories out of it.

    Thanks for your support. After all, it IS all about how we look, right? :-)

    Happy Monday!

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  7. Oh no! I hope you're feeling calmer and less stressed.

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  8. Hi Tina,

    Thanks! I'm using it as my excuse now.

    "Don't annoy me. I have a condition."

    ReplyDelete

C'mon, you know you want to say it..

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