h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Abbi,

Clearly you have long ago discovered what I now know - that doctors are a very strange lot!

And I'm also very relieved that someone else does the planning thing to cope with stuff! I sometimes feel like it's just me. I make lists of things to do, things to pick up at the store, things to accomplish, things to pack and so on. Other Half sometimes gets frustrated as one list seems to lead instantly into another one! However, he has now learnt to appreciate that just because I'm making a list it doesn't necessarily follow that I want to go do those things right away. I'm just filing it all.

Same principle also applies for window shopping and spotting comely shaped people around us (I'm one of those women that notices other women, whereas he doesn't seem to) - it doesn't mean I want to buy that dress (it might not fit, might not suit, might not be in budget) or sh@g that person (ibid). It's about filing things away, doing the research, knowing what's out there and so on.

Health service here in the UK is a bit odd. We have the NHS which is free (and therefore oversubscribed but mostly cool and groovy) and then we have a separate, private system. One can also choose to 'top up' with private services when needed, although sometimes the NHS becomes funny about that. I.e. if you've ever gone private for f.ex. a lump, they may want to try and make you always go private for lumps. So there's lots of reports usually about people suing their NHS branch. Also, there's a certain post code lottery going on in that some NHS centres (which are divided up into autonomous areas) will fund certain things / drugs, and others won't.

And then there's people like my GP, who seems to look at me and sees a morbidly obese, disfigured with it, fatty. Now, I'm overweight, but I am an average size here in the UK. Obviously, that average has gone up in recent years, but I'm not _that_ huge. (What an odd thing to comfort one self with).

However, I think realistically, that even if I lost some / significant weight, my blood pressure is likely to stay the same, unfortunately. Which is sort of OK, provided that I am otherwise fit and healthy and we can sort out suitable, effective medication to allow me to do the things I want to do.

I was all excited a few days ago as my measurements had gone down 2 days in a row. Not so lucky yesterday - it was back up to ridiculous levels. Guess I'll try and make another appointment with the GP next week as this isn't doing so much, and is nowhere near his rule of thumb of 140/90.

Anyhoo. Hope you're both having a lovely Thanksgiving and that you enjoy your time off.

he has now learnt to appreciate that just because I'm making a list it doesn't necessarily follow that I want to go do those things right away. I'm just filing it all." quote

I understand this perfectly well!
You have probably caught onto your hubbys anxiety over your lists quicker than I
It was sure helpful to figure out!

*******************

On dr.s being a strange lot - Yes, well the Human Lot.
I Can't hang with one for long who does not appreciate communicating well.

**********************
Good Luck at the doctor!

It is hard to keep pushing and to keep at the medical issues but it is better to look back and know you tried your best to do all you could.

Some blood pressure is so annoyingly stubborn.
I still have hopes for the future of medicine being able to help you.

You may like one of my balancing ryhme for medical issues

Having too little or too much patience can make one a patient
I have experienced both sides!

thanks again abbi - it is much appreciated.

I'm not so full of good advice - my main thing at the moment is

don't ask = don't get
don't suggest = don't get
don't try = don't get

Hi ismarah, I was wondering if you'd been back to the doctor yet this week. I've got my fingers crossed for a desirable result.

I like that in your last post. I need to remind myself that if I don't ask, or try, I won't get, sometimes. So much easier to bemoan what I want and don't achieve than to try and get it, eh?

Good luck at your next doctor appointment. I'll be thinking of you.

*waves to Abbi*

Thanks for the reminder!

I'm making another appointment tomorrow and have another blood test on Friday morning.
The beauty of ace inhibitors is that they may affect kidney function (which may also be affected by high blood pressure - it's a sort of win win situation).

BP is still high, although it's going down. It's just not enough.
And I've also discovered that my clinic supposedly offers family planning (including fertility etc problems) which might be easier to talk to than my GP.

So, currently, the status is no news is good news.

Eh. Christmas planning. Meh.

"And I've also discovered that my clinic supposedly offers family planning (including fertility etc problems) which might be easier to talk to than my GP."

Good Idea! I am sure they are more familiar with your questions and feelings.

Like your philosophy!= TRY
Good Luck next appointment.

Well.

I appear to have a particularly resistant strain of high BP, as the maximum dose of the second lot of medication isn't doing the trick. It's down some, but still too high.

My next specialist appointment is in early March, which is when I will lay my cards on the table and ask about methyldopa and stuff and try and figure out why my options actually are.

I had a long chat with my mum last night and explained what was going on and she was very supportive. There had been the usual questions as to whether DT and I were ever planning to have kids and I should hurry up with it. I took it all calmly and just deflected the comments and questions, which was good. When relative strangers have asked me in the past I've flipped, slightly, so this was good.

DT is now happy about the idea of kids and we will try for the natural way first and I will have to make it work (if successful) around my precious degree.

If not successful, WE (as opposed to just me) will have to seriously look into the other options. Bleurgh. DTs never going to find that a fun idea, bless 'im.

Hope everyone had a great holiday and a great NYE - I know I sure did.

Glad you have made some decisions together about going forwards, but sorry to hear the health problems are persisting

I forgot it was NYE yesterday, so no - we didn't do anything very much to celebrate!

excuses, excuses

Quick note.

Went to see GP this morning and he's added a diuretic to my daily regime of pills - BP is now around 10 'points' too high, each. Hopefully this will knock this last little bit down.

He was unusually friendly, greeted me by name and said it was good to see me (!), so I'm guessing he's probably great with the grannies, the people that are in and out at the doctors like a revolving door. I now fit into this category and he is starting to piece together the whole picture, which is good.

As he was so 'nice', I braved the topic of doom - children. While it is difficult to comment decisively without a diagnosis (ie do I just have high BP or is it symptom of something else) he didn't seem to think this would be a ridiculous thing to try. So go, me.

Great News!

A doctor with the whole picture of your health , plus you having stated your desires

Yay! Another wonderful step is completed.
I hope the medication does what is expected , if not more.

I've now been on the highest dose available of the ACE inhibitors since December and on the additional dose of diuretics for 2 weeks.

BP has not dropped any more - still hovering around 150/100, give or take 5 points on any given day, on both.

I've been going running in the last week, trying to go every other day. I am capable of running almost non stop for 20 minutes, dragging the dog the entire time.

I've measured my blood pressure before and after and it hasn't changed at all, although of course the pulse has been racing afterwards.

Have been feeling generally good, until last night, when I walked up the stairs and my friend the palpitations were suddenly back again. For about 5 minutes I had this feeling of someone squeezing me, my heart pounding, and obviously felt enormously uncomfortable and out of it.

So now I'm back to being very scared and using lots of gallows humour. Thankfully OH gets the 'joke'.

I'm also now scared to go out for a run again (one due today) and will make a doctors appointment (or go to the emergency room) if I have another episode like this.

Every little twinge, ache, numbness etc. makes me wonder if I'm having a heart attack (at age 31!) or what it could be a symptom of.

I don't know what to do.

Hi, all. I'm ismarah's husband, and she asked me to let everyone know that she's not posting here right now. The reason is because we ended up going to A&E on Monday night after she had a bunch of palpitations and NHS Direct strongly recommended doing so (in the sense that they said they'd dispatch an ambulance if she couldn't get to hospital).

She was admitted to hospital proper on Tuesday morning, is now stable and, hopefully, will be able to make a break for it soon, assuming the doctors can stablise her blood pressure. I'll post again when I know more.

Quick update: Kay's doing OK, although we don't know when she'll be home. I'll pass on any messages posted here.

Sorry to hear Kay has been so ill, hope she is well and home again soon and hope that at least this will help the doctors find a way to sort the underlying problem out.

and Feel better soon love.

I am now home from the hospital, stable-ish and awaiting results of tests.
Going back in 2 weeks for the final bit and we'll move on from there.

IF this is what the doctors seem to think, the good news is that while curing that, my high BP will also be cured as it is a symptom - and not of having high BP.

Sorry about the being cagey thing, but I don't want to hang myself on this diagnosis until it's confirmed for sure.

I'll also highly enjoy going back to my GP to tell him he was in fact, wrong. Oh, and may have been prescribing me medication that has made me sicker (!) although I can't be too upset about that as otherwise I might never have needed to go to the hospital and thus might never have been diagnosed. If I am. You know what I mean.

Thank you for the support, it means a lot.

ismarah

Well, I think it's clear from the last 2 weeks that I don't do anticipation well, although I did know that already.

I'm going back to the hospital tomorrow for more tests, although after about 7 phone calls during which it was sorted where I should go and when - I get one last call this morning, changing the whole thing.

School's been out this week due to the weather so I've not even had that to distract me and I'm now running through all the options I can imagine in my head. They include, but are not limited to, me having nothing wrong with me after all, me having the thing they suspect or me having something even horribler.

I'm tired all the time, and feel like my blood sugar is all over the place (but I am not diabetic) - in that shaky way one gets when you do too much on too little fuel, which leaves me really trembly and uncomfortable, but without any actual pain, which is good.

So I'm just counting the hours really - waiting for tomorrow when I can go to the hospital and get it done, over, known. meh.

Well, I'm back now, early, which is great because it's been snowing all afternoon and the traffic is gonna be a pain later.

I've had several blood tests under specific conditions, done little pee pees in bottles and had the BP done, as usual.

Results will be in later today or tomorrow and then hopefully the consultant specialist will actually contact me directly rather than communicating via the family doctor as I really don't like him.

Then, if the suspect is confirmed, it will get dealt with.

If the suspect is confirmed as innocent, we're back to the drawing board, but I believe the hospital will want to keep an eye on things directly rather than turf me back to the doctor again.

Feel decompressed, like a weight has been lifted, even if I don't know for sure what's wrong with me - clearly these tests today have been bugging me. All done now - happy again

Sorry to hear about your troubles and really hope that the medicines are helpful.

Personally though, I don't think being childless is necessarily selfish. It depends on so many factors, and if someone does not want to invest the time and energy necesary into the children then I feel that the opposite is true. For most people the spawning part is easy. Then they decide that their way of dropping kids into the world is the right one, never pausing to reflect on what they can give to their child in terms of parenting. I didn't feel ready to raise a child until just before 30 and think that if I had a child before that time I could not have raised it properly. Around 30 my wife and I found that thought had stopped scaring us as much so we went ahead and made one. There were problems in both pregnancies but we now have two beautiful children (two for company, one sounds a little lonely)

Helping with such a question is really hard though. I'm not sure that my wife and I would have gone for adoption (I rather think not, actually) if there had been problems but I have met people who were really saved by their adopted parents and the love and respect between parents/child is not to be sneered at. Probably wouldn't have been the solution for us anyway. I'm just not that altruistic.

Surrogacy is the closest but seems a bit scary (dealing with the person). Of course a part of childrearing is getting your DNA to continue, so that would have been a more likely option for me. I am selfish enough to have someone else carry the child to term (taking the associated risks) and then reaping the benefits.

I also would not want to miss the first years. I now have two young children and would not have missed their first moments in the world for anything.

I'm sorry for not probably not being very helpful as such but I hope that my ramblings are not completely useless.

So those last tests were 2 weeks ago tomorrow and finally today I got a call from the hospital. Basically, from the test results that they have, they think they can confirm their suspicions and now want to run an MRI scan for final proof.
I'm waiting to hear when that will be and then hopefully we'll know for sure.

I'm generally speaking not in any pain and at the most I could be described as uncomfortable on occasion, with the tremblies a lot (low-blood sugar feeling, but my blood sugar is fine), but that can't really be helped. BP is still high, but we're not worrying about that now as it's a SYMPTOM, say it with me: SYMPTOM of something else.

Tomorrow is also my assessment for the 2nd semester at school which I've worked my wobbly arse off to try and complete everything for. Although school kindly offered me a 3 week extension on everything I didn't think I could afford that as then everything would just snowball. I did take the extension on 1 paper, but other than that, everything is ready.

Bring it on!