Yesterday’s post was apparently just the tip of the iceberg, but kind of in a good way. My “panic attack” that prevented my elbow surgery ended up being something totally different and much more serious.

During the day of me moping all day long (and My Lady getting more and more annoyed by the moment), we began working on a plan to get the elbow surgery done. This involved getting it rescheduled quickly while I still had a chance to squeeze in my time off at work. We were making good progress, but one thing still bothered me – how to handle the panic attack problem again. As a check, ML picked me up a home blood pressure monitor, just to see how my numbers where when I was at home and more relaxed.

Surprise! My blood pressure was worse. Like, “how is your head not exploding?” worse. So, off to the emergency room to prevent a heart attack or stroke we went!

(Keep in mind during all of this, that I’m in my mid 30s, so I’m like “what the fuck, why am I dying?” Moving on…)

As the triage nurse takes my vitals, I warn him not to be too freaked out when he sees my blood pressure. He then tells me that it’ll be tough for be to beat the highest number of the night, which was something like 208/110. I’ve never been one to back down from a challenge, and I VERY easily blew that away with a 250/148 of my own.

Now, let’s pause for just a moment for those who know about blood pressure to pick their collective jaws up off the floor. For those not in the know, [SCIENCE ALERT] the high end of normal blood pressure is usually in the 120/80 range. Anything over 140/90 is considered high blood pressure and should be treated. A top number of over 180 is called a “hypertensive crisis” and emergency care is needed.

Hey, what can I say…. when I do something, I go all out.

The one thing that was confusing the doctors – and me, for that matter – was that I had no symptoms whatsoever. With a bp that high, I should have been having headaches, vision problems, nausea… I had none of that. I felt completely fine, other than being a little anxious because I knew that my blood pressure was so high. I mean, seriously… my blood pressure is two times as high as normal, and my body is just like “I don’t know what you guys are all concerned about, I’m totally chill here.” WTF????

So, thankfully, they didn’t keep me overnight, but they did get me a prescription for blood pressure medication. Hopefully, these will help get my numbers down quick…. ML was able to get my elbow surgery rescheduled for next Friday. Maybe this was all just God’s way of telling me “look motherfucker, you have to get yourself checked out and healthy, and if fucking up your elbow surgery for a week is what’s going to motivate you to getting it fixed, that’s what I’m gonna do.” I guess I can’t really blame God for that. 😉

So, now the plan is to get on the meds, chill out my heart and get it to relax, and hopefully get my elbow fixed next Friday. Honestly, though, my elbow is the lesser of my concerns right now. I’ve been meaning to get “old man healthy” for a while now, because I’m fucking loving my life right now and I want a lot more of it. Things like this are getting me moving in the right direction.