The Good News Is...
I'm not pregnant.
I went to a Doc-In-A-Box instead of our old doctor.
Our old doctor had a practice in an old house in downtown Norfolk. He and his
nurse practitioner rocked the house. Then they got a write up in the paper as
being the best doctor in town. They moved to a fancy office and it takes weeks
to get in. After my eye exploded, I didn't want to wait anymore.
The waiting room was full of people hacking up
lungs. Some guy came in and said he thought he was having a heart attack. Why
would you go to a doc-in-the-box with a heart attack? Especially since there's a
hospital right across the street! It's a Catholic hospital.. maybe he was
Buddhist. So of course, they took him right away, while the rest of us waited
and tried not to get breathed on. He left pretty quick, so I guess they gave him
directions to "cross the street and get into the ER." I watched CNN about the
Virginia Tech rampage until I realized that some lady kept staring at my eye.
Then I looked out the window. There were some "true green" people doing the
landscaping when a station wagon pulled up. Three people got out and opened the
back. They had a bunch of paintings they tried to sell to the landscape guys..
now that's taking "door to door" to a whole new level! I know I'd buy
my art from out of the back of some guys station wagon, who wouldn't?! Finally,
they called my name.
The bad news is that I don't have
just high blood pressure, I've got double high blood pressure,
kind of like double stuffed Oreo's. I'm surprised I haven't popped yet. I knew I
was in trouble when the nurse took my BP and made that weird noise. 237/134, not
good.
So, the doctor tried all afternoon to figure out
why it was so high. I guess he really couldn't take the "it runs in the
family" explanation at face value. I got poked and prodded. I peed in a cup and
got a chest X-ray (I wish I could have seen them because they took a side view
one with my arms over my head. I bet my boobs looked great!). I spent a great
deal of time just waiting.
They took three vials of blood.. I wondered if that
would make me feel better. Get rid of some of the blood, get rid of some of the
pressure. Nope. The doctor kept coming and taking it. He'd shake his head and
say "this can't be right!". He even hit the side of the machine once, like you
do when the picture on your TV starts to roll (do TV's still do that?). It
didn't make a difference. He kept asking if I was sure I didn't get
headaches or blurred vision.. no, I feel funny but that's
it.
After a bazillion questions and all the tests came
back normal.. it turns out the only thing wrong is my BP, he gave me some
medicine and told me to come back tomorrow. Oh and not to do anything strenuous,
just in case. I see that as permission to just lay on the couch and
read.
I put a picture of my eye on flickr (didn't want to
gross out some poor unsuspecting person) but I'm warning you it's pretty gross
(take into account that I don't do horror flicks so maybe I'm just used to gore
and it might not be as gross as I think), but if that's what it takes to get me
to the doctor, I'm really glad it happened.
Comments
I hope this doc is going to get right on this. I am really sort of surprised they didn't send you right over to the hospital.
Good luck tomorrow. I hope the medication helps! Hugs.
I will send positive vibes your way!!
XOXO
Thanks for the vibes, I can use all the help I can get.
Just so ya know, if the doctor whacks the side of the machine to "get it to work": that's a bad sign.
Get a referral to a cardiologist. You've read my posts about my kid and his heart issues and let me tell you...when waiting to see cardiologists, people love to tell me stories about their heart problems now. Lots of intense stories. I'm living in the world of heart drama and seriously: get a referral to a specialist.
Please? Ooof! (jumpin' off the soap box now.)
That is some seriously high blood pressure. My mouth fell open when you said the doc whacked the machine. See someone else. See a cardiologist. See as many as you can.
I hope that someone can get ot the bottom of this for you. I also hope you can get over your fear of white coats, which personally I think is never a good look for anyone unless they are Audrey Hepburn.
I looked at the photo. It is disturbing, but I can't tell if it's just red (broken blood vessel) or is something else going on too?
I've popped a blood vessel in my eye before. It has the same creepy, bloody effect. You can do it while coughing, laughing, any kind of straining, etc... But, like I said, I can't tell if that's all you've got goin' on.
I'm jus' sayin.....
But you are a mom and you already know that taking care of yourself is part of taking care of your kid. You'll do what's right for yourself. :)
But i'm still jus' sayin...
Hope you are okay.
i wonder how the high bp might have effected to your inability to lose weight through normal channels. usually doctors diagnose cause/effect with weight and high bp but yours seems a case study for the reverse. weird. history shows that this stuff is genetic; i wonder what a cardiologist would say.
if we're doing 'House,' i've said it before and i'll say it again: "I GET TO BE THE WHITEBOARD!"
its a quota thing.......
take care of yourself. i'll be right over with massage oils and green tea....
I wonder how doctors compensate for that sort of issue. I hope they know about the stress you have, going in to see them.
crazy stuff.
But, make sure to not let this go. BP is a "silent killer"...that is the symptoms aren't really uncomfortable, so it's easy to ignore them.
(Yeah, I have it, too).
Glad to hear it was so much better. And if this Doc in a Box isn't available find another one!!!