SCARY SYMPTOMS WE SHOULD ADDRESS BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE
Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash
I’m telling you, it was BAD.
I could hardly stay up long enough to make coffee. Got a little better, thought I’d go to the grocery store — less than a mile walk with my customary grocery bag/backpack, something I do several times a week. Halfway home, I had to call a Lyft.
Maybe you’ve had similar struggles, and you understand? Even if you’re not a Certified Old Person as I am — costant fatigue, nagging anxiety not unlike a headache that’s about to crash land just behind your temples?
After a couple of total-exhaustion days, I figured maybe it was a blood pressure issue. I have a fancy BP machine stashed in a cabinet that was bought long ago for some obscure reason. So I took my blood pressure throughout the day. 130/70. Maybe a little low? I don’t pay a lot of attention to these things as a rule.
Suddenly, however, it shot up! It was 160-something over 80-something! Now I’m really worried. After getting these sorts of readings, or worse, throughout an hour or so, I’m hearing alarm bells.
By then it was nearly 8 p.m., but I was sure I might go into cardiac arrest or something at any moment.
So I called the Kaiser advice nurse. I love the Kaiser advice nurse. He or she will always listen patiently to my complaints and either offer guidance or send me straight to the ER as the case may require.
We talked at length about my medical history and my symptoms. I described the exhaustion, my life in general over the past few days, my increasing concern over what seemed to me some sudden wild BP swings. As usual, I liked the advice nurse a lot and felt she was carefully internalizing my information and analyzing the situation.
After a few moments of reflection, she made a diagnostic recommendation.
“Have you tried turning off the news?” she said.
Imagine.
I’m better now.