These are old archived entries from my journal, Ornamental Illness. I have eliminated all graphics (except those in context of an entry) to save on my bandwidth usage.


Please visit my other sites below. I promise they're more visually interesting.

Ornamental Illness main entry page

Ann-S-Thesia Web Graphics

Ann's Gemstone Jewelry

The Dingbatcave

Art Objects

Eyebalm Fine Art

Windowsill Cactus

..::Previous entry: "My Second Seinfeld Dream"::.. ..::Main Index::.. ..::Next entry: "Priceless"::..

06:02:2004 Entry: "Ann : Boring Health Stuff"

Boring Health Stuff

They put me on blood pressure medication...just a half a pill, or 12.5 mg. Last Wednesday I went in to have to checked and it was still high. The nurse said I was too young to have high blood pressure. Stan said later that she should've kept her mouth shut, they shouldn't say such things. The thing is, since when is your early 40s too young to have high blood pressure? It's when my mom developed it (or at least that's when they discovered it, she could've had it earlier and didn't know it because she wasn't seeing a doctor when we lived out east) I suspect, the nurse was not reading my chart, and just going by the way I looked. Maybe she thought I was only in my 30s. I bought a digital reader and have been taking it at home. This morning I was 113/86. The diastolic is still higher than it should be, but the systolic is amazing. I hope it's an accurate reading. I guess I won't know until I go back in on Monday, but then how accurate is that when you have whitecoat syndrome? But it always takes a long time for drugs to take effect on me too. Like novocaine. When I had teeth pulled before I got my braces, it felt as if they were pulling them without any anaesthetic. The second most physically painful experience in my life.

I'm still feeling weird effects from the meds though. I feel sleepy during the day and I have weird sensations in my my throat, neck, chest, head, like someone is holding me tightly. It's not a headache, it's just weird. I can't describe it. I have weird effects from drugs in general. All drugs. The only drug that never gave me weird effects has been the birth control pill, and now, I'm going to have to go off of it because of my high blood pressure (which is probably the bad effect I now have from that!). My mom says it's probably just psychosomatic, but if it were psychosomatic, wouldn't I feel nauseous or dizzy as the side effects on the drug info sheet state? Wouldn't I pick something like nausea (which I can feel rather easily anyway) as a psychosomatic side effect if I was worried about taking the drug? Instead, there is absolutely NO nausea. Why would I invent something like a sensation of my head and neck being held tightly?

My blood test also shows high cholesterol and triglycerides, but here's the scoop...my 'bad' cholesterol is low, or at least under the number it should be under, and my 'good' cholesterold is high, above the number it should be above! So how can my overall outlook be that bad if the HDL and LDL are where they should be? It's baffling, and I can't even find info on the web about scenarios like mine. Everywhere I look it talks about low HDL and high LDL. I feel alienated yet again. The only reassuring thing, if one can call it that, is that my mom has the same exact pattern. My body is only doing what its genes are telling it to do. You can't help your genes. At least I don't have my dad's genes...he barely has blood pressure. I'd rather have it too high than none at all.

I had a mammogram a week ago...my first one, baseline. I will never do it again. It was the most severe physical pain I've ever felt. Don't believe the BS you read 'They're uncomfortable, but not painful.' Gimme discomfort anytime. Gimme 10 gynie exams in a row. Unless you've ever had a painful operation or been in a car accident or something, THEY ARE THE MOST INCREDIBLY PAINFUL THING YOU WILL EXPERIENCE. I also don't feel 'right.' I still get occasional shooting pains or aches, even a week after it. I feel like they damaged the tissue. Maybe it's just my imagination, but I feel they're hanging differently. Nope, never again. I should've listened to my gut instinct and not the doctors. I'm sure that experience didn't help my blood pressure. If men had to have that done to them every year or so, you're damn well sure they'd invent a procedure with less pain. Bend over and caugh and get a finger in your butt...big deal. And men are freaked out by that!!!!!???!?

6 Comments

I don't think it's just psychosomatic, maybe it's a weird sideeffect, you should probably ask your doctor. I think high blood pressure is much more dangerous than low blood pressure, I've had low bloodpressure and it's alright if you don't mind passing out now and then ;) Could the birth control pills have caused the high bloodpressure?
Hmm, I've been in a car accident, but naturally I've never had a mammogram so I don't know if it's very painful, I take your word for it though, hope you don't have to do it too often.

" Bend over and caugh and get a finger in your butt...big deal. And men are freaked out by that!!!!!???!?"

I'm actually very freaked out by that. What kind of disease are they supposed to discover by using such a method?

Posted by Nico @ 05:13:2004:01:33 PM CST

I don't see a doctor. I'm in an HMO (Health Maintenance Organization). They put you through a screening process of sorts, so I'm seeing nurse practitioners. I guess if your problem's serious enough, they move you on to a doctor.

I'm sure the BC pills are a contributing factor to the high blood pressure. I'm also predisposed to it, as it's in my genetics. I used to have low blood pressure too, but with age it got high. Low blood pressure is fine when you're young, but it can't be good when you're my dad's age. He's like a zombie.

The test I was mentioning I think is for prostate cancer, but I don't know since I've never had it done. If only women's exams were that easy!

Posted by Ann @ 05:13:2004:01:42 PM CST

I had horrible dreams about the two last sentences in your post last night ;)

I think you should have your breasts examined regulary though despite that it's painful. My mom died of breastcancer which had spread before it was discovered so I think it's good if you keep an eye on those two.

Posted by Nico @ 05:14:2004:04:18 AM CST

An exam is no big deal. But when you're talking a big machine coming down and compressing your breast to 1/4" thick until the pain is unbearable, that's another matter. No one can tell me, regardless of their medical accreditation, that that is supposed to be a good thing and results in no damaged breast tissue. I'm sorry, I'm not buying it. And until they can assure me they will not perform the test in the same way as they did this time, or until they come up with another method, I'm NOT going back to that. Imagine having a car door shut slowly on a very sensititve part of your body, but when you say "Owwwwww" whoever is closing it, does not immediately open it again.

Posted by Ann @ 05:14:2004:08:25 AM CST

I'm not usually naked when I'm driving my car so I'm not sure how I'm suppose to get that part of my body in the cardoor ;) Seriously, I understand you want to avoid strong pain, maybe they didn't do it correct cause I can't imagine it's supposed to hurt so much.

Posted by Nico @ 05:14:2004:03:13 PM CST

Heh...Stan and I invented the "penogram".

Posted by Ann @ 05:18:2004:10:13 AM CST

By Ann @ 11:32 PM CST:06:02:04 ..::Link::..