The Silent Killer.

 


This year, if things had turned out differently, could well have been the fifteenth anniversary of my death. Sends a shiver down the spine, doesn`t it? But fifteen years ago I was suffering from a condition that could well have killed me.
  They called it the silent killer--hypertension or high blood pressure. Often enough, the illness has no  symptoms--except for one, you die suddenly from a stroke or a heart attack. About that time ago, I began to get headaches, almost daily; I was one of those who did have symptoms. Everyone has headaches, don`t they, I thought perhaps it was eye-strain or pressure at work and treated it with aspirin. Then one day, something happened that could not be explained so easily. I had woken with a vile headache and took the excuse to phone in sick, an excuse I was happy to accept as work was really becoming not a happy experience. I was on the phone to my office manager trying to exaggerate ever so slightly my indisposition, when I could not bring out my words. You know how it is when you have a slip of the tongue and say a nonsense word, not what you wanted to say. You stop and start again, continuing on the right track. But I could not bring out the words I had in mind, and nothing would emerge. Thoroughly frightened, I handed over the phone to Kim, who dealt with the manager, though I think even more scared than I was. Then, of course it was a gallop down to the Doctor`s. He took my blood pressure, which turned out to be well over two hundred, and was the cause of this strange loss of language.
  The Doctor gave me pills to reduce the level of blood pressure, Atenolol initially. These stopped the headaches dead, a really smashing result in my eyes. Unfortunately, they did not reduce the pressure and further pills were prescribed and adjusted until a good combination was discovered. Apparently this varies wildly from person to person. With minor adjustments, I have been taking three pills daily ever since, and as long as I do, my blood pressure is fine.
 I don`t know why I started to suffer this condition, I thought possibly stress at work, but in fact my mother died suddenly at 55 and my sister has told me she also has the problem, so it is probably hereditary. Nevertheless, I am lucky to live in a time when such things can be detected and treated, unlike my poor Mum.
   Here in France, this would probably have been detected earlier, any visit to the doc`s will entail a blood-pressure check. However, if anyone reading this blog has not had one, I implore you, profit from my experience to check up, it only takes a moment. I strongly suspect the British establishment of being let us say ambivalent about preventative measures on the grounds that they don`t want people surviving to draw pensions! Don`t let them steal 15 years from you!!

   Bye for now, going to appreciate being alive...