Happiness Challenge

I have high blood pressure. I've had it for 20 years or more. It has been controlled with medication (and a little by diet). 

Now, though, it's messed up. I'd noted the last few times I was in my doctor's office that it seemed to be running high. Not super high, more like 146/88 high instead of 124/78. And my beats per minute are always over 80. Thump thump thump. My husband's beats per minute are like beat - wait 10 minutes - beat. Well, it's not that bad, but his is about 45 beats per minute. Half of mine.

So today I am happy that I have a doctor I can email numbers to and say, hey, my new blood pressure monitor is scaring me a little with numbers of 168/105. My question wasn't "what do I do," it was, "can this wait until my scheduled appointment with you in two weeks?" To which she responded I could wait so long as I wasn't having any issues.

I am scratching my head a little as to what issues I could be having other than the ones I have, but since she said I could wait and I didn't see anything that indicated alarm on her part, I guess I am in a sort-of-ok-for-the-moment range. I think if she'd thought that something needed immediate attention she'd have called in a drug or told me to double on a medication or had me come in.

Just to be safe, I did tai chi a while ago as I know that has in the past brought my numbers down a little. And I will avoid salt if I can. It's hard to know what has salt in it. It shows up in the strangest places.

Anyway, I am happy I'm still able to write this, though I do feel a bit of concern. And since my doctor is aware of the problem, hopefully when I do see her, she'll have looked over my medications and determined what the next steps should be if she wants to add another blood pressure medication to my mix.