Hello Friends, I hope everyone is doing well. As I'm writing this blog post I'm actually sitting in a hospital bed. I guess writing never stops does it? Or maybe I'm actually writing because I can't sleep after being woken up by someone taking my vitals.
So as you can see by the title, life seemed a bit scary for a little while. I actually despise hospitals. Yes they are here for the purpose of helping someone in need or trying to save someone. I know they are a good thing, but I despise them. As you may or may not have known by a previous post, I was born with a cleft lip. As an infant, I was already in the hospital starting at six months old with needles on me and several doctors repairing my cleft lip. My cleft lip journey didn't stop until I was already almost in high school and I am still not really done as an adult. I despise hospitals so much because I had to see my mother suffer and be hooked up to tubes because of the mistakes made by doctors not checking a blood transfusion she had many years before she past, that caused her to receive an incurable illness. I hate hospitals due to the fact that I have the horrible memory of almost hemorrhaging to death after we had our last child and then having to have emergency surgery three days later due to a yet another doctors mistake.
So this year on Mother's Day while I was celebrating after just eating dinner with my family and watching a movie with our toddler in our room, I had walked into our living room rubbing my arm. I could not explain the pain that I was having, it fell like my arm was throbbing and tingling all at the same time and I became nauseated. The memories started to flood in my mind of my mother. At the same time, I was trying to keep a straight steady face in front of my husband and my children while he was telling me about a movie. I was scared inside. When those memories of my mother started to flood in, I was thinking she really was a strong woman to face something and try not to show it in front of her children when she was sick. My mother eventually died of a massive heart attack due to deteriorated health, so chest and arm pain really scared me.
My husband was noticing the whole time I was rubbing my arm and asked me if I was alright. Me being me, I knew I didn't want to go. I decided that I better go after all it might be something really serious, recounting family history. As we drove at a very high speed down the highway, I had uncontrollable shaking. I knew it was my nerves getting the best of me being scared. As I stood waiting in line at the ER desk thinking crap, I can just go in this lobby. I couldn't really think after that. My brain just went blank and I went on with the typical questions they ask. I was told to wait because triage was busy with the patient that was ahead of me. Ten minutes went by and that seemed like an eternity. They got me back and put the heart monitor on, took my family history, and said that there was no sign of an active heart attack at that moment.
Skipping to the room, again heart monitor, IV fluids, and medicine for nausea. The doctor finally came in and gave me two options, to stay three hours and see if my blood pressure went down or stay overnight which was recommend by the chest x-ray they had taken also. So I stayed to find out what was really going on with me because I knew they were going to doing a stress test on me.
The stress test... let's just talk about that for a minute. I totally understand that they have to stress your heart in order to see if it would cause a heart attack. I wouldn't say it's not that bad when they inject dye into to your veins to trace your blood flow. I would say the opposite. It sucked. The amount of water I consumed was a LOT. I believe I drank two gallons in three hours and then had to walk on a treadmill. I also got CT scanned three times within those three hours. Luckily, I found out that there was a thick wall around my heart, from uncontrolled high blood pressure. The doctor decided to put me on Beta Blockers for my heart and to control my blood pressure.
I had high blood pressure when I was pregnant with our daughter, I was told that it was normal because I had retained a lot of water during pregnancy. It wasn't normal. My blood pressure continued to be high after I had her and the doctors pulled me off that blood pressure medication. I was told I was fine and healthy. Here we are almost eight years later almost having a heart attack.
Good Job, Doc.
I was reading the statistics on the American Heart Association, on how many men and women do not know they have high blood pressure. They can be healthy and fit and eat right and all of a sudden they pass from having a heart attack, stroke, and heart failure. They call high blood pressure the "silent killer" of diseases.
Here are a few facts according to the AHA:
*Many people with high blood pressure don't even know they have it. It often can be that signs and symptoms that are misunderstood.
* High blood pressure develops slowly over time and can be related to many causes.
* High blood pressure cannot be cured. But it can be managed effectively through lifestyle changes, and when needed medication.
If you have a family history of heart disease or high blood pressure. Please get checked. Maintain good health if you do have it. Don't give up, before it's too late.
Thanks for taking the time to read. I hope this helps. some of you. As it was scary for myself and my family, I don't want all of you who are at risk to go through something like this.
As always,
Melissa
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