While there’s many endings to that, including the quality of life, job possibilities, and even income, today I’m looking toward the health aspect.
You see, my father had double bypass surgery at 42. I’m 35. I have inherited the paternal side of high blood pressure, heart disease, and Congestive Heart Failure. And in 2008, there’s much more things I can do now to prevent these things from affecting my family’s life.
So the answer today is: … I’m preventing HBP and heart attacks before I have any problems.
This started a month ago with a trip to the doc and they got a really high BP – like 170/110 high. Per doc’s recommendation, I bought a monitor with a cuff and it didn’t seem to go down much – an average of 145/90. Another doc visit a week later and it’s probably a physiological reaction to stress. An EKG showed normal. So, I’m on an alpha/beta blocker, Coreg CR. The doc explained the new generation of a/b blockers have almost no side effects and stop the adrenaline from stress from raising my BP. He also recommended an aspirin regimen (81mg baby aspirin) that I started this week with my first real prescript of Coreg. I’m officially a statistic somewhere. Probably the “35 yo males with an XBox and Fat Tire habit taking Coreg and Aspirin” group.
I’m still dealing with the “I gotta take a drug every morning” thing – like I’ve screwed my body up somehow, but a good part of me know it’s inherited. I’m 7 years from the age where my dad’s big battle with this started. And, at 42, I know I’ll be better off than my dad and maybe even HIS dad.
So, I tested my BP 3 days ago, almost 2 weeks on Coreg. 140/82. Yeah, it’s not GREAT, but I’ll take it.