Thursday, January 13, 2011

Follow-up

Southbury, Connecticut

Waiting to see my general practice doctor for follow-up after all the hoopla this fall with arrhythmia. When he got to the room we had a careful precise talk about all that had been happening and other things that need to be tested. All great. Then he takes my blood pressure, and for the first time ever it's high. 145/95, when I'm always 105/70 and during the arrhythmia incident this fall, even in the ER, where I spontaneously came out and back into sinus rhythm, the blood pressure was my usual 105/70. So, I'd shoveled a lot of snow, but that should only leave an elevated pulse, not BP. So we went to Walgreens and bought a home blood pressure taker thingy to see if I go back to normal.

I love the way the GF1 made the mistake of focusing on the wall, instead of me. Makes the picture interesting.

5 comments:

cj gordon said...

You're a lucky man. I don't get more than 10 minutes if that. Writes my prescriptions and takes my blood pressure and that's it. The only time I got anything beyond that was when I was having my first kidney stone and it took a little more time to get me a hospital spot. I'm very fortunate to actually have a G.P. and he's only able to do for me what the system allows.There are something like 5 million people up here in Canada who have no family doctor which means seeing a specialist is very difficult. One of the reasons many of our citizens go to America for treatment.Anyway nice shot in the mirror and my B.P. never gets below 140/60 which my doc says is okay for me.

Anonymous said...

I absolutely love the small woman standing on the scales ;)

Carl Weese said...

cj, yes lucky compared to the 50 million or more Americans with no health care coverage at all. But I've only had "real" insurance since the state of Connecticut passed legislation forcing availability for self-employed people a few years ago. Before that all I could get was catastrophic event coverage. Plus, even with that legislation, it *only* costs $15K a year for a couple, with a deductible and co-pays on top.

Anon, yes, she makes the shot, but she's the "large" woman on the Body Mass Index Chart. There's a skinny woman on the other side.

typingtalker said...

Within the community of medical professionals that study human blood pressure and especially high blood pressure, one is not diagnosed with such unless a series of daily at-home readings are high. You are fortunate your GP recommended this ... or was this your idea?

Carl Weese said...

typingtalker,

It was the GP's suggestion. And yes, we are fortunate to have him. See upcoming post.