Timeline of a new phase in my life.

[andrewducker]

About two months ago, I had a nasty respiratory infection. And while I was lying awake one night, I could hear my heart beating quite loudly.

Having had multiple friends go to the doctor to check on something and then have the doctor tell them that they urgently needed medication before their high blood pressure did them serious damage/killed them, I thought I should pop in to the doctor for a chat.

They checked me on the spot, said my blood pressure was a little high, but nothing terrible, and told me to join the queue to borrow a blood pressure device. danieldwilliam gave me his old one, and I spent a couple of weeks taking results. Which mostly showed that my pressure is fine in the morning, but that after I've spent 90 minutes shouting at Gideon to stop bloody well mucking about and go to sleep, it's a fair chunk higher than it should be. They also sent me for an ECG (which showed I have Right Bundle Branch Block, a harmless and untreatable condition that affects 15% of the population), an eye test (which found nothing), and a fasting blood test (which showed I'm still not diabetic, even though I can't have sugar in my diet even slightly any more).

They then had a phone call with me to chat it through, said that I'm a little high (on average), and a little young for it to be a major worry, but if I was up for it they could put me on some pills for hypertension.. I agreed that it sounded sensible, and the doctor sounded positively relieved that she hadn't had to bully me into it.

The weird feeling is that this is the first time I've been put on to a medicine that I will have to take for the rest of my life. There is now "The time I didn't have to take medicine every day" and "The time where I had to take medicine every day". Which definitely feels like an inflection point in my life. (Endless sympathy, of course, for people I know who have to take much worse things than a tiny tasteless pill with very few side-effects.)

So all-in-all, nothing major. Just the next step. I'm just very glad for the existence of modern medicine.

Comments

[juan_gandhi]

They prescribed you statin? Careful with it. They prescribe statin to everyone, but see. You need statin if your blood pressures is high. You need stating if you have high bad cholesterol (is it LDL?)

Otherwise, you may encounter a bunch of side effects. I started having memory problems when I used statin (I have no reason to use it, but the doctor said, and I trust professionals too much). Now I don't take stating. Feeling fine. All parameters normal.

Well, that was my experience; yours may vary. But pay attention to the changes you may experience.

[andrewducker]

No statins for me yet! Thank you for the warning.

[greenwoodside]

I'm still adjusting to the shift of mentality I went through as we were emerging from Covid, from 'I'm young and it's nothing' to 'um, I'm now kind of middle-aged, and maybe it's not nothing'.

Does feel a bit like being unwillingly driven across a Rubicon.

[andrewducker]

Very much the same.

[calimac]

The real change for me came when I was taking so many pills that I had to get a weekly box to keep track of them all.

[andrewducker]

I have an app I use to keep track of what pills the kids need, whether I've brushed my teeth, and now this.

At some point I may need something more complex.

[channelpenguin]

Gosh, I can't imagine that. Hurrah for apps! I'm glad I don't need to manage more than a monthly cycle of worming and anti flea/tick tablets for my cat!

[vereybowring]

I got an early start on the meds for life thanks to my stomach. I've been on proton pump inhibitors for about 20 years now lol.
Yeah blood pressure is a tricky thing and thankfully fairly easy to control these days. Of course I went into full heart failure for a while thanks to my gallstones/pancreas issue a few years back, but everything is stable now (will be on bp meds for rest of life) and I was especially happy to get taken back off beta blockers though since that really messed up my hand temperature (common issue with them apparently) so using a keyboard/mouse was unconfortable for a while. Also avoiding statins thusfar, just have to be careful with fat intake due to the gallstone thing (I used to eat probably far too much mature cheddars hence the issues ). I've been tested for diabetes loads of times over the years as they've often thought I was diabetic or had some sort of thyroid problem, I usually have an over abundance of adrenaline which comes down to them discovering during my autism diagnosis testing my fight or flight system is locked on all the time. Likely I may end up with insulin issues at some point in the future due to that but so far fine. Vision wise I also now have to wear glasses more (technically always should have been wearing them for driving but never drove lol) but its just aging although I have to always get the advanced eye tests (which I did anyway) due to my older brother having been diagnosed with glaucoma in one eye.
At least you thankfully drifted fairly softly into middle age type health where I got dumped into it liked a halo jump lol.

[andrewducker]

Oh yes, you're definitely one of the people I was thinking of in the bracketed sentence.

[threemeninaboat]

Welcome to middle age! :)

[andrewducker]

Dammit, I was relying on the kids to keep me young!

Prescriptioins?

[lsanderson]

It's been a couple of years. I started doing drugs when I was around 1.5 years old, and that trend has only gotten worse as I have gotten older. The only thing I can't complain about is that I have gotten older.

Re: Prescriptioins?

[andrewducker]

I am glad you're still here!

[darkoshi]

> I'm a little high (on average)

My first interpretation of that was they were saying you were a little too tall.

A person I know who has been on BP meds was on and off of them due to his BP getting too low sometimes. He developed a sensitivity (rashes, itching) to the first med and had to switch to another kind, and then to another.

[andrewducker]

Yeah, I'm going to have to keep an eye on it. *sigh*

[channelpenguin]

As expected, I will chip in with suggesting you look into diet and exercise. Which also is lifelong, but may sit a bit better in your mind, I dunno.

Specifically a Whole Food Plant Based diet, with as little salt and added fats as possible. Olive oil you could make your own mind up on, the evidence there is kinda mixed. (I have some, personally). Basically "real food", not ready made vegan junk food. Perfection not required , even heading significantly in that direction should be helpful - though you would likely have to watch with the fruit given your sugar sensitivity (which would also possibly be helped a bit too).

There's a new updated edition of "How not to die" by Dr. Michael Greger out this week, I would recommend to read it at least.

[andrewducker]

As soon as the children give me more than ten minutes to cook in the evening...

[channelpenguin]

Maybe batch cooking on a Sunday might work? I don't have kids, but it's what I've done for years. Big soup or stew, pasta n sauce pack the oven out with roast veg or oven type casserole, "shepherdless" pie etc.

With pasta, cooling and reheating alters the starch, so the effects on blood sugar are less. Not sure about tatties, but maybe? Neeps, celeriac and parsnips might all be good subs if you like them.

Take it easy as it takes a few months for your body to get used to increased fibre (but it's extremely good to have increased fibre!). Always soak beans peas lentils (except orange ones) and discard the water before cooking. Ideally also chuck the water they first come to a boil in, but I find I can skip that step now. (This is to reduce fartiness - eventually it will be eliminated, at least so I found)

[channelpenguin]

I'm depressed that people seem to think medications are inevitable. But no doubt they are for some.

But I don't believe it's inevitable for everyone, I fully expect (hope) to be like my dad and never need any, but I'm lucky with my health (slight case of dry eye plus obviously reading glasses is my only annoyance).

I can't stand the idea of dependency. I'm prepared to eat healthily, exercise and whatever I can to help stave off that day. Maybe I'm deluded. I'd also far rather die suddenly from a heart attack (my most likely doom) or the like than suffer any long term illness or disability, mental or physical.

[magedragonfire]

*laughs in Type 1 diabetic*

[channelpenguin]

Well yes. Staying alive is probably worth medication :-). I bet it still sucks but sometimes there's no choice.

Necessary for some people, as I did say.

[gingicat]

I'm glad you got it checked out.

[andrewducker]

Thank you, me too.

[danieldwilliam]

I have the same meds.

What are your tools for remembering to take them?

[andrewducker]

I use MyTherapy. It does a good job both with reminding me to do this (and also Gideon's medicine, and various others when the kids need them), and also it tracks when I should be ordering more.