Under Pressure

Pressure

While at the surgeon’s office last week, the nurse expressed concern that my blood pressure was high. She was so concerned that she had me wait until the exam was over and then took my pressure again.

It was still high.

She urged me to meet with my family doctor to ‘start a discussion.’

Now, yes, the numbers she reported were high. But I quickly pointed out that while at the chemotherapy oncologist’s office just a few weeks before, my pressure was perfectly normal. So…

I made the appointment to start the discussion.

Sigh.

I know he’s going to tell me I need to lose weight. I mean, duh. Anyone who looks at me knows I need to lose weight. That’s a given.

My biggest problem (other than the fact that I love sugar in most forms) is that a remnant of chemo is the taste of blood in my mouth. It’s gross. When I’m not eating, the taste is very much present. When I am eating, the taste is gone. So, you guessed it. I eat all the damn time just so I don’t have to taste blood.

My doctor has gone through chemo, so I asked him if he’d suffered this side effect and if so, what did he do to either alleviate it or at least curb his desire to eat everything in sight. Except, he didn’t have any advice because he didn’t have that side effect. Lucky him, poor me.

So the verdict is…I get to start a three month trial of high blood pressure medication. My doctor wants me to have some blood work before starting the meds. So I’ll do that on Saturday and then take my first pill on Saturday afternoon.

Getting old (and being fat) sucks. Just so you know.