August 12 – “Pressure”

Well, how about this for an unexpected discovery?  Apparently when I went to the emergency clinic after I fell and smashed open my face, my blood pressure was somewhat elevated.  I certainly didn’t think anything of it at the time.  I had six or seven other things to think about.  I do vaguely recall that they almost made me stick around the clinic for a while longer after they finished the stitches, but the doctor decided that his blood pressure would probably be elevated, too, after what I had just gone through.  Ah, but therein lies the joy of being married to a nurse.  Chris never forgets. 

On top of her elephant-like memory, I guess I have been experiencing some other unusual symptoms.  I have had headaches off and on since the fall.  I have felt jittery or restless as well.  Can’t really put my finger on any specifics of that one.  It’s just been hard to stay focused on whatever task I have before me.  Guess I’m understanding … hey, that’s a fly … a bit about … oh, I have to pick up my fire department shirt at the cleaners … what it must be like … so the Astros lost in the ninth inning last night … to have ADD.  I don’t think belching a lot and not feeling hungry has anything to do with it, but I have to add in there that I have not been sleeping very well.  I get to sleep OK, but I end up waking up three or four times during the night.  And most of the time it’s because of the one symptom that most annoys me.  I am hot most of the time.  Of course Chris thinks I’m a pretty hot guy anyway, but that’s a different kind of hot.  And it’s not like the hot flashes caused by that evil spawn of Satan drug prednisone.  I am just hot.  Like I have a fever or I have just mowed the grass at 2:30 in the afternoon.  Thank God for air conditioning. 

So in the midst of all this, the other day Chris randomly started showing up at my desk with her blood pressure cuff in hand, ordering me to stick out my arm.  She has been keeping a log of the results, too.  So, as it turned out, I guess yesterday’s results were a little more significant than usual.  She repeated the process on both arms.  Of course Cailyn was here, too, and she was right in the middle of everything.  She likes to pump up the cuff.  She also has to take her turn with the stethoscope in her ears.  Doesn’t matter if she can’t hear my heart beat, though.  She always asks me to whisper something into it so she can listen to what I say. 

Anyway, the results were higher than they should have been.  Not that I know what they should be.  But for the first time Chris started talking in terms of the Dreaded Diet.  You know, the “no salt and no fried foods” ridiculousness.  Of course we already have a family fish fry scheduled for when Josh and Christi and their boys get here tomorrow.  Maybe she was just trying to scare me into submission.  She didn’t press, though.  Even said that her stethoscope or cuff might be off.  Little did I know she had something else up her sleeve, though.

Later on in the afternoon we took Cailyn to the library.  Typical outing.  And then we stopped by the fire station to “see her Daddy.”  Also a typical part of such an adventure.  Only this time, while I had a conversation with a few of the fire fighters, I noticed that Chris and Nathan had eased over to the fire engine and were in deep discussion.  Suddenly Nathan was approaching me, medical bag from the truck in hand, saying, “Come on.  Let’s take your blood pressure.”  Got me.  What was I going to say?  And sure enough, his fire department approved blood pressure cuff came up with the same reading Chris had gotten earlier in the day. 

So what does that mean for me?  I don’t know.  I think the next thing I expect is for Chris to tell me I have an appointment for a full-blown doctor’s office check-up.  Oh, well.  Couldn’t hurt.  Meanwhile, I hope I don’t keel over during water therapy or whatever it is you do when you have high blood pressure.  Sigh.  What a way to approach my 61^st birthday. 

Psalm 117 says, “Praise the Lord, all you nations; extol him, all you peoples. For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.  Praise the Lord.”

Father, thank you for the love and concern Chris and Nathan showed me yesterday.  I could do with a little less pressure in my bloodstream, I guess.  Amen.