Under Pressure

I got a sort of disturbing letter yesterday. We had to do a health screen for this new program where I work and the letter contained the results. Apparently I have high blood pressure. Hypertension as them medical type folks would call it. It feels strange because I have always regarded myself as being fairly active and healthy.

But the letter has the results there in black and white. It's the upper number of my pressure reading that is the big problem. It's 140 and that is exactly where the High Risk category begins. Everything else on the screen looked pretty much ok. The report said I could stand to lose some weight, my blood sugar was on the upper side of normal, but my cholesterol count is unbelievably low. I have always had super low cholesterol counts. It's in my genes, as is the high blood pressure I am finding out about. My mom has been on high blood pressure medication for a long time now. She was diagnosed at an early age and manages it fine with her meds.

Naturally after receiving my report, I went to WebM.D. which is where I love to go to scare myself with all the possible things that could be going wrong with me. On WebM.D. they have this thing where you can give your symptom (a paper cut for example) and they return with the list of possible maladies (usually something severe like brain cancer). So I looked anyway and found out that I am at the lowest end of Stage 1 Hypertension. (There is a Stage 2 by the way that I hope I never need to look up.)

So just before dinner, I read all about Stage 1 Hypertension which made it seem like I am going to die tomorrow from it. Needless to say, Daleen said I seemed a little depressed over dinner. She asked if I wanted to talk about it and I just sulked and murmured, "no" while I sat and wondered if I was going to get a casket or be cremated. I have said in the past I wanted to be cremated and had even told Daleen the list of places to scatter me: Powhatan, South Africa, White Mountains of New Hampshire, Blue Ridge Mountains in VA, and at the beach at First Landing State Park (also in VA.)

Later I did some more research and found that I really am not going to die anytime soon from this, but if I let it go, it can cause me some serious problems. Luckily, the most common treatments are.... ta-da! losing weight, exercise and eating healthy! And it just so happens that those are three things I have really been wanting to do but just haven't gotten around to it yet. Well, now I suppose I have a good reason not to procrastinate any further.

So here is my plan. I'm making an appointment to go see my doctor and get her opinion on this. Since I am not completely rotund and I am fairly active, she may decide that losing weight and exercising more may not be enough to overcome my family history and go ahead and put me on meds. I hope to not have to do this and really want to give this healthy eating, losing weight, exercise thing a whirl. For some strange reason I am now feeling particularly motivated to the point that killing myself on a treadmill, tofu, and soy milk are starting to look really good.

I'm not as bummed out now as I was earlier. I think I can beat this and get my numbers down to normal. Luckily, the side effects of this will be: I'll need thinner clothes, I'll probably feel better, I'll improve on my time in the next Ukrop's 10K race, and I'll save money by not buying those ultra-tasty honey buns from the vending machine at my office (I will miss those a lot). As for those of you who belong to the same gym as me, I reckon we'll be seeing a lot more of each other. When you see me, don't forget to cheer me on; and when I ask if you've had your blood pressure checked recently, the correct answer should be "yes".