Dr. visit

Last Monday I had my annual doctor checkup. I wasn't expecting anything but to have to wait forever to get in and to get my blood pressure medicine prescription renewed. Uh, no such luck. It was not a good day.

Of course I did have to wait quite awhile to get in. Even though there is never anyone in the waiting area. I don't know what's up with that.

Once the nurse finally got me, she had me get on the scale and I was 160.8 pounds. That was less than my last time there, but I am not happy about how much weight I've put on since I quit working. Oh well. It got worse...

Then she checked my blood pressure. And she checked it again. Then she got another nurse to come in and check it! It was like 185/100. Ugh.

The doctor finally came in and he immediately starts in with questions about why my blood pressure is so high. I mean, I felt fine other than I'd drank too much the night before. At least I thought I felt fine. After listening to him give me the third degree and talk to himself, I began to feel much worse. To be blunt: he has a terrible "bed-side manner." I need to find a new doctor because I always feel worse when I leave than when I got there, and I have no confidence he knows what he's doing. Plus, I don't know if he's a drug addict, or just can't help himself, but he's always tapping his foot, or bouncing his leg, he never looks at me, never listens to me, and goes off on asking me things or explaining things that have absolutely nothing to do with me! It's a bit frustrating.

Anyway, long story short, in addition to the max Lisinopril (40mg) I've been on for years, he also put me on the max amLODIPine Besylate (10mg). He said if it made my bp too low I could cut them in half. And I have to come back in a month with a chart of several daily bp readings for each day.

In addition, he wants me to get: 1) flu shot 2) Covid vaccine 3) tetanus shot 4) shingles vaccine, and have a complete lab draw. This is also when he went into this big long tirade about some lung test which, when I finally asked what it was all about he says, "Oh, it's not something you need, but someday you might." Oof.

Anyway, I'm not a big fan of this new med. I was hoping to someday get off the old one. So far it does seem to be helping though. My bp seems to be about what it usually was first thing in the morning (120-140-ish over 70-80 range), and in the afternoons it gets lower. The lowest is like 113/63. I think most people's is lower in the morning, but as usual, I am the opposite of most people.

I actually think perhaps my biggest problem with blood pressure is anxiety. And I mean chronic anxiety. I seem to be nervous all the time anymore since quitting work in July - and have had a few panic attacks this past week. I haven't had those in awhile, but that day my bp was so high really freaked me out. I was downright scared the first couple days. So, I need to try to figure out a way to explain this to him so that 1) he will even acknowledge I said something, and 2) that maybe he will understand what I'm talking about.

Yep, it's been a real joy being me this last week. Funny thing... the only time I seem to relax is when reading, or running. Maybe I should just do that all the time.