Rude Awakening

Okay, fine. It's been a while since my last posting. I fell off the wagon. Big time. And last Thursday, I was made aware of my transgression in a very scary way. To start the day, my weight registered at 265. That's right two hundred sixty five pounds. That's the heaviest I've been in my life.

To make matters worse, at about noon, I was very quietly working away in my studio editing some audio for a sound design I'm working on. I wasn't stressed and I hadn't been over-exerting myself. I started to feel a bit dizzy. I thought this might be a good time to check my blood pressure.

Now, you have to understand that I have NEVER had a normal blood pressure to my recollection. Even in high school when I was 5'10" and 175 pounds and VERY fit my BP was marginally high.

Over the past year, I've been working with my doctor to get my BP lower as it had begun to creep up a bit. I was taking 20mg of Lisinopril twice a day. I even started using a CPAP machine a couple of weeks ago to see if my sleep apnea could be elevating it. (Boy, does my wife love the CPAP!) But nothing has really been all that effective.

For reference, blood pressure falls into the following categories:

• "Normal" blood pressure is systolic pressure (top number) less than 120 and diastolic pressure (bottom number) less than 80.
  
• "Prehypertension" is systolic pressure of 120 to 139 or diastolic pressure of 80 to 89.
  
• Stage 1 Hypertension is a systolic pressure of 140 to 159 or diastolic pressure of 90 to 99.
  
• Stage 2 Hypertension is systolic pressure of 160 or greater or diastolic pressure of 100 or greater.

I have always been classified as "Prehypertension."

So I come downstairs to take my BP and - hold onto your seats, folks - I registered at 173/119! I thought I was dying. I took it again using the other arm: 183/120! I immediately called my doctor. I gave them my BP and indicated that I was dizzy but did not have a headache, was not sweating, nor was I short of breath. The nurse advised me to lie down and relax for half an hour and take my BP again and call her back. If I developed any of those other symptoms I should go to the ER, but if not and it was still high, I should come into their office. This time I was down to 175/108 - about what I'd been running since before starting CPAP. The nurse advised me to come into the office. I called Lesli at work and asked her to come home. This set everyone at HEBISD into a panic, from what I understand.

Lesli came home and drove me to Dr. Kurz' office where he took my BP again and it was back up to 170/117. He was very good at setting me at ease. He said that, essentially, what we were trying wasn't working. He gave me a two-week sample of Diovan to take at bedtime each day and to check my BP 3 times daily and follow-up with him in two weeks. He also gave me a prescription for Clonidine which he said I should only take as needed if/when my systolic pressure gets over 200 (which it never has) or if my diastolic pressure gets above 100 (which it ALWAYS does.) In the meantime, take it easy over the weekend.

The next morning (Friday,) my BP registered at 153/103. I didn't take the Clonidine yet because I was so close to the mark. But by noon, I had gone up: 164/113. I took the emergency pill. Less than an hour later, I could barely stay awake long enough to take a reading, but it came in at: 144/98. Another hour later: 125/76! That's damn-near close to normal! I've never had that before! Of course, I could barely stand up because I wasn't used to my BP being that low. I slept most of the day and Lesli took excellent care of me.

Saturday morning: 133/88. Saturday afternoon: 160/110. Took the emergency pill: Back down to 124/85.

Sunday morning: 123/75. Wow! In fact, I didn't take an emergency pill all day yesterday as the highest I got all day was 126/94 for an average BP of 121/81 for the entire day!

This morning: 116/78.

So I get it. It's time to make a change. I'm having fruit for breakfast and snacks followed by a small lunch and sensible dinner. I went for short walks yesterday and this morning. I hope to go further as I get used to this lower BP and as the heat wave ends (IF it ends.) I may have to cut back on my daily Sonic Diet Vanilla Cokes. (My apologies to Sonic. I hope you won't have to face any lay-offs as a result.)

Oh, by the way - I've lost 6.6 pounds since Thursday! I hope to be a skinnier Scrooge this Christmas. Or at the very least - a healthier one.