Many years ago, Laura emailed me after a night in an Australian swamp "I'm OK now, Mom." It was a memorable line after a terrible experience.
I've been thinking about that line today. Yesterday Jim had a routine rheumatology appointment in which he had a high blood pressure reading. He attributed that to his hurrying into the examination room from the car. I said we could check it when we got home with a monitor I've had for a few years.
When we checked at home, his reading was even higher--much higher. After a few more tries with confirming readings, I asked him to cancel his golf date and call our doctors. He did so and got an appointment for this morning with a nurse practitioner. Little by little the reading went down but it was still definitely hypertension.
Googling the numbers told us that one had to head to the ER immediately if it was 180/120. It was not that high but the initial numbers were not far below that.
Jim felt good about the nurse he saw this morning. She prescribed a medication and asked him to monitor his blood pressure twice a day and then see her in two weeks. She didn't want the drug to lower it too far!
We picked up the prescription and Jim took his first pill at noon. Tonight at 9 pm we got out the monitor. Sadly, the batteries were dead. Happily, we had more in the closet. The numbers tonight were great! What a relief! How wonderful to see that drugs work and work so well! We are so relieved and grateful.
----------Two weeks follow-up--All good. He needs to check b/p two or three times a week and see nurse again in three months.
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