Hi Patti!
Around eight or nine years ago, I had my annual appointment with the obgyn. One of their usual practices was to take my blood pressure before beginning my exam. Well, I have to tell you, I don't ever want to see that look on the face of a medical professional again.
Apparently my bp was super high...like in the 200 range. "You could stroke out," the nurse said with a frantic look. "You have to go see your GP the minute you leave here."
So I did. Terrified. Sure enough, my GP...the best doctor in the western hemisphere, just so you know...confirmed the obgyn nurse's findings and immediately prescribed a medication called Altace. The Altace started to give me problems after a week or two. I completely lost my appetite. Could barely finish half a sandwich at any given meal, and just felt like shit all the time. After a few weeks of that, ready to give up and go off the meds, I went to the doctor to see if he could change the prescription.
"Just give it a little longer," he said. "These things usually resolve themselves after a few weeks." So, good little girl that I am, I agreed. And you know what? The stomach issues went away the very next day. I don't know if it had something to do with seeing the doctor and finding out it would probably go away on its own, or if I had just waiting till that very last moment that I would have felt icky anyway.
At any rate, I've been on that medication ever since. One pill every night before I go to bed. After a few years, the doctor added a water pill as well. A tiny little white pill with the unmistakable result of sending me to the bathroom a lot more often than usual. And since the only time of day I can reliably remember to take medication is just before bed, I end up taking my water pill at night, and getting up one, two, sometimes even three times during the night to pee.
Fun and games.
But...it's working.
Today I visited my GP to have my BP checked and get a renewal on my prescriptions. Lo and behold, my blood pressure was perfect. I mean Per. FECT. 126/70. That's the best it's been since I was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
So, I'm a pretty happy camper today, and grateful to live in a time when such medications are available, and a place where I can access them reliably and relatively cheaply, even without a drug plan.
My brother, Casey, died suddenly of heart failure just a little less than four years ago. He too was very overweight. My paternal grandfather died of a heart attack also, shovelling snow during a storm. My mother had a small stroke several years ago...a stroke which actually probably saved her life. The proverbial wake-up call.
So here I am, overweight, sedentary and getting older every day. And two wee little pills are keeping one of my body's most critical systems ticking away almost as good as normal. And all I can say is thank goodness for modern medicine. I might already be dead by now without it...as might many people I know.
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