However, one day last week I came in to work and found myself with a light-headed, slightly out-of-balance feeling that sent me, after a couple of hours, to the on-site nurse’s office (run by the Public Health Service; IRS offers some health care services for free to its employees, insured or not). The nurse got the highest reading she’d ever logged for me since February—155/105—which stayed the same after I’d lain down for half an hour in the office. At that point, she insisted I had to call my doctor for an appointment at once, and sat there while I made the appointment to make sure I followed through. Fortunately, my doctor was able to do a work-in late the same afternoon.
After looking me over, the doctor agreed I had symptomatic hypertension (read: “your blood pressure’s up but I dont know exactly why it is”) and prescribed a diuretic to stop me retaining water, which he thought might bring my BP down to an acceptable reading. I also cut out my morning coffee, which is fortunately easy for me to do as I don’t get many caffeine withdrawal symptoms.
Apparently he was right. I dropped five pounds’ weight between last Thursday and today, and this morning’s blood pressure reading was 121/91—a trifle high on the diastolic still, but far better than last week and just about something I can live with.
My doctor remarked during the examination that he was a little surprised I had felt symptoms of hypertension with a BP reading that was only moderately elevated, but allowed that some people are aware of symptoms that most wouldn’t notice, for reasons that are poorly understood, as he put it. I nearly told him I thought there was a name for people like that: hypochondriacs.
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