I was getting a pre employment health screen for a job with the county and after the doctor took my blood pressure he asked me if I had a regular doctor.When I replied yes, he suggested that I go see him NOW, and offered his phone so I could call and let them know I was coming. I don't remember exactly how high my BP was, but that doctor got me out of there so fast I think he thought I was going to explode at any minute and didn't want to deal with the mess!
After a long series of "lets try these meds with these meds" and a sonogram of my kidneys to rule out stenosis, We finally got it under control.
Flash forward to a year ago.
Some routine blood work showed my blood sugar was screwy...so I had to get a glucose tolerance test (which, in my case, should be called a survive the trauma of having blood drawn 4 times in 2 hours without fainting like a southern belle test) and guess what? If you score a 200, you are a diabetic.
I scored 199. Suddenly a light went on...we had had such a hard time getting my BP under control because I was a borderline fucking diabetic! Apparently, diabetes drives blood pressure up.
I radically changed my diet, began exercising and losing weight and continued to take my meds regularly.
If you've seen those TV commercials about the importance of taking blood pressure medication like your life depended on it, they are not kidding.
Even with insurance, my monthly pharmacy costs are about 150.00 USD...
Flash forward to about six months ago.
I got fired from my job (fuck you very much Andy Hines). I lost my insurance, the COBRA program was out of the question because Ann had been "laid off" by the same piece of dogshit, had exhausted her unemployment benefits and had just started a job that wouldn't pay the rent on a cardboard box. My doctor was really cool though, and gave me samples of the expensive meds and cut me slack on my visits. We were getting by.
I got this electrician gig, but union rules state you have to "bank" so many hours before benefits kicked in...ok...that's cool, we're both working again. Oh,wait a minute...Ann got laid off again.
Well, my benefits kicked in, but there was this little problem...it's called "piss ass broke", oh, and there was another problem too...I was getting dizzy at work, not a good thing when your'e on a 16 foot ladder. I stopped taking my pm doses of meds to a) make them last longer between refills and b) not fall off a ladder and break my neck. Recent events have caused me to miss a week of meds ( that piss ass broke thing again).
So, today, I went to see the doctor. My BP was high ( what a surprise ). After relating the last few months events to my doc, he attributed it to missing meds for a week and stress, tweaked my dosages to address the dizzyness issue and gave me a shitload of samples, like I said, my doctor is cool...a genuinely decent caring man. And then he said "You know, the dizzyness could be a blood sugar thing". And reminded me of my 199 score from last year.
I'm getting a blood sugar test next month...meh.
So, what's the point of all this? I'll tell you. I'm tired of waking up every day for the last eleven years wondering if today is the day I have a stroke. I'm tired of wondering how we're gonna get by from week to week...I'm, just fucking tired, ya know?
But, as I just shared with a friend of ours, King from platoon said if "you keep your pecker hard and your powder dry the world will surely turn"...I still believe him.
You can put it on my tombstone.
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