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2/1/06

I am a marathon runner!   I am a triathlete!  I am obsessive about what I eat and drink!  And I am likely to die of a heart attack or stroke! Or – maybe I should say “I, like ¾ of you – am likely to die of a heart attack or stroke”.  Let me explain.

 I’m one of those people who, without fail, gets a full blown physical every year.  Now – I’m not averse to doctors at other times of the year – I get cedar fever; I tripped while running the Capital 10,000 and had my arm x-rayed,  so you see, I do go to the Doctor throughout the year.

 3 months after that fall, I was sitting in the examination room for my annual physical and the nurse is doing all the prep stuff. You know: ear, nose, throat, blood pressure, height, weight (and, speaking of weight, just why is it that the scale at the doctor’s is ALWAYS 5 pounds heavier than at home??)

 Blood pressure. She starts taking my blood pressure, cuff around my arm, pumping up the little hand pump.  I peek of course – anyone else here try to guess what the blood pressure is by the blip of the mercury?  She finishes taking it, and then…she starts pumping and takes it again! “Ow!” I’m thinking “how come it hurts so badly with these skinny arms?” She’s finally done, takes the cuff off my arm and – she slaps it onto my OTHER arm and takes it a third time!! At this point I know something. is. up.  “what’s the matter” I crack “no heartbeat??” [pa da boom!] [big smile. slowly disappears.] She does not. smile.  Off she rushes in a flurry and 2 minutes later the Doctor walks in with her “She’s just having a bit of difficulty” he says, sits down and proceeds to take my blood pressure! For any of you who are wondering if this is a really great hands on Doctor, let me assure you that in five years he has never taken my blood pressure himself!!  Then – Un-be-lievable --- he switches the cuff and takes the reading on the other arm!

 He & the nurse exchange one of those looks. You know – the kind in an old black & white Vincent Price movie – and he says “I’ll talk with her”.  He sits down in front of me, puts his hand on my knee, looks me in the eye and says “you have high blood pressure”  I’m speechless!  “very high blood pressure” he intones.  “That’s impossible!!  I am a marathon runner!  I am a triathlete!  I am an obsessive compulsive health fanatic! I can’t have high blood pressure!”

 The numbers do not lie -- I have high blood pressure.  Normal is 120/80 – mine is 148/125!!    the red zone!  The doctor gives me medicine to take IMMEDIATELY, right there in the office – that gets my attention.   He gives me brochures, fliers, articles, warnings, websites to visit, and then continues with the rest of the physical to see if he can determine a cause. Nothing. .jumps out. as an obvious cause.

 I go home, worried of course, but thinking “this is really scary, but really. I exercise, I eat right, I do the right things”   “how bad can this be?”

 Ha!  Let me share with you just how bad it can be!

 High blood pressure causes strokes; High Blood Pressure causes heart attacks; High Blood Pressure even causes Alzheimer’s disease.  It even can get so high that it can make your eyeballs bleed! Like a horror movie, for gosh sakes! I kid you not!!  The more I read, the worse I felt.  This is one of the easiest diseases to test for – you can go to Randall’s or Walgreen’s any day of the week and test your own in that little blood pressure machine!  But did I?  Do we?  Do many of us really know what our blood pressure is?

 Here’s a story that is sure to open your eyes.  My cousin Freddy, ran a marathon when he was 36 years old.  He ran the marathon with his kids! Well, the day after the marathon he was feeling so bad he went to the emergency room.  “you should feel bad” they told him – “you just ran a marathon for god’s sake! Go home and rest.”  Freddy had had a heart attack running the marathon, and he didn’t even know it. By the time they diagnosed it a week or so later, he had such severe heart damage he can not only not run marathons with his children ever again – he can’t even play with them!  Freddy hadn’t been to a doctor in years; and certainly didn’t know his blood pressure, or that he had heart blockage. 

 Now, let’s think about all this in perspective.  Think about someone you love for a moment; think back to a wonderful memory, a birthday celebration, a first step, or maybe a hug & a kiss you received just this morning.  Or think about the future: kids down the road? or a graduation ceremony that you hope to see? maybe it’s even a vision of something YOU yourself might want to accomplish in your lifetime.  Now.  Think again of that same scenario, but, with you as an invalid.  Or with you not even in the picture at all!  That’s what high blood pressure can do to you!

 I am one of the lucky ones.  I found out I had High Blood Pressure early on – within 3 months of getting it, since I had been to the doctor so recently before.  Not everyone is so lucky.  Last year, one million, 200 thousand Americans first discovered they had heart problems by having a heart attack.  502,000 of them, died.

 Why is this important you say? You feel fine? Well, I felt fine, too! there is a reason HBP is known in the medical world as the Silent Killer.  It’s likely that in this room ¾ of us have high blood pressure and most of us don’t know we have it! There are rarely symptoms of high blood pressure.  Learn from my mistake!  Remember: the #1 symptom of high blood pressure is a heart attack.  Is that how you want to know??

 copyright Susan Baughman

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