After/thoughts. It’s a real word. I checked. But, when I actually look at the word, it looks like “aftert houghts,” and makes me wonder if, when I’m reading quickly along, I might be stopped by thinking “Aftert houghts? What are those?” One definition of the word is “on second thought,” which might be a better usage. Or, I can just trust you to read it right in the first place.
Anyway, in thinking through those moments just before the second of those medical procedures from a couple of weeks ago, I recall the hubbub that seemed to bring something like panic through the cadre of medical professionals around me. My blood pressure was really high. There was lots of discussion about what to do about it. And I kept saying, “I don’t have high blood pressure.” Because, yes, indeed, I do not actually have high blood pressure. I had some visits with a cardiologist, a few years ago, because my blood pressure was so low that I’d, very briefly, passed out a couple of times. His advice was, “Get up slowly.” And I’ve pretty much been following his advice since then.
It’s not that I doubt that my blood pressure was elevated, lying there on that bed, waiting for the second attempt at the procedure, as I’d not had any solid food since Sunday. I’d not had anything to drink (except for that unpleasant-tasting colonoscopy prep liquid, which, I suppose, did hydrate me, maybe), since Tuesday. I’d had almost no sleep since Sunday night. And I’d had to sit in the waiting for an hour, and wondering if my colon was adequately prepared this time. Who wouldn’t have elevated blood pressure!
But the thing that may have made my blood pressure rise, even more than it had been, was a nurse who leaned ‘way up in my face and said, in a rather cloying and accusatory voice, “Honey! Have you not been taking your blood pressure medicine?”
And I said, “I don’t have high blood pressure,” for the first of several times.
FYI-we senior adults do NOT like to be talked to and treated like children. Or called “Honey,” by total strangers.
I do understand that these are medically-trained professionals, and their job is to make sure that patients are healthy and compliant with procedures and prescriptions. And I also suppose that there are patients who don’t take their medications and don’t follow guidelines. But I do want the medical professionals to treat me as though I am compliant, unless I have a history that says I’m not.
There was no problem with my blood pressure Tuesday, the day before, when I was being prepped. That day, and the next day, a nurse had gone over my prescription list, which was on the computer. If I’d had a prescription for high blood pressure medication, it would have been on the list. Since there was none, the assumption should have been that it was not a diagnosis I had.
As I was being disengaged from the IV’s, etc. after I was done, a nurse asked when I’d last seen my primary care physician. “Six weeks ago,” I said,emphatically. “My blood pressure was fine.”
She said, “You should get a home blood pressure cuff. They’re easy to use. And you can check your blood pressure.”
“I have a home blood pressure cuff,” I said. “And I know how to use it. I got it a while back, when I was seeing a cardiologist, because my blood pressure was so low that I was passing out.”
They tell you that you probably won’t remember much from the colonoscopy experience, and of course, I don’t remember the procedure itself, but I’m pretty clear on what happened before I was put to sleep. And one of the last things I remember, before being wheeled from the prep area to the procedure area, was a nurse saying to the doctor, “Are you going to do anything about this blood pressure?” And he said, “No.”
I wouldn’t be surprised if my blood pressure had begun to drop right then. I know that I felt soothed and relieved, knowing that my physician was on my side.
Now, may the Lord himself, the Lord of peace, pour into you his peace in every circumstance and in every possible way. The Lord’s tangible presence be with you all.
2 Thessalonians 3:16 (The Passion Translation)
Interestingly, but not unexpectedly, when I went, two days later, for an appointment at the kidney center, the nurse who took my blood pressure said, “One ten over sixty. That’s great!” When the doctor came in and looked at all the numbers, he was even more enthusiastic. My kidney function was 36.6%, higher than it’s been in years and twice what it was in June of 2012, when they were starting to talk about dialysis.
And look!” he said. “Your blood pressure is really good!” Seems like I don’t have high blood pressure.