Doctor's appointments. Car maintenance. Trips to the grocery store.
My goodness, what the hell is wrong with me? I have access to health care, transportation and food, and I dread the very vehicles that allow me to thrive as a free and healthy individual. It's terrible and I'm working to change my perspective on it all.
Yes, I'm one of those people who believes that once you buy a car, it should give itself oil changes, change its own tires, you know...anything that might need to be taken care of after 8,976 miles.
Today's short visit to the Honda dealership wasn't so bad. I was carefully anticipating that moment, however, that we all know will come. The tech appears in the waiting room with a clipboard and a look of seriousness to explain an additional $300 service I need to add to the oil change. Oh, okay! I don't think so, buddy. But thanks anyway.
In a way, it's frighteningly similar to the doctor's office. Although my true hatred of the doctor's office began with the start of annuals, it didn't help a few years ago when I went in and had a nurse freak out on me. I'd always had very low blood pressure. That was before the craziness of family, intense work and volunteer life overtook me. So I went in for an annual several years back and sat down for the mandatory blood pressure check. Here's what happened:
Nurse: "Um. This can't be right."
Me: "What?! What?!
Nurse: "Uncross your legs, maybe that will help."
Me: "Is something wrong?"
Nurse: "Hey, Betsy...could you come in here and do this reading for me?"
Me (freaking out): "Could you PLEASE tell me why you're freaking out?"
Nurse: "Your blood pressure is REALLY high."
Me (thinking): "You are a complete and total idiot. You should work in a place where you have no human contact."
So it turned out by THIS time, after all of this unprofessional BS, my blood pressure was really high. Of course.
It wasn't high enough to be on medication, but I still get full of anticipation about what my blood pressure could be everytime I go in. We'll see tomorrow morning. I, um, posponed my appointment by like 6 months.
Terrible, I know. Too bad I can't postpone grocery shopping that long.
And really, I am grateful everyday for the opportunities I have for such gifts in my life.
15 comments:
Take a deep breath... relax. Maybe that's why you were in a foul mood, your BP is high. Lady, take it easy now okay? xoxo
I've been on high blood pressure pills for almost 5 years. I knew mine was high. I could feel it was off.
Hey, watch that blood pressure thing,okay?
But it's not too much to want a nurse to have a little bedside manner...
She flunked Bedside Manner class, fo sho. Actually, even just a "hmmmm" is a harbinger of doom.
Unprofessional nurse behavior aside, you may have a condition called "white coat syndrome". It's not really a medical condition but a psychological reaction to dealing with doctors. It can raise blood pressure significantly. If they didn't give you time to relax while getting measured and weighed and answering the clipboard questions that could also contribute to a high reading. You can try a little meditation-like exercise inside your head. That might help.
My Sarasota uncle had such a severe case of white coat syndrome that they couldn't never get a reasonable reading on him. The eventual solution was to have him go to the fire department for a reading the day before his appointment. (For some reason firemen perform this service for free in Florida, or at least in Sarasota.)
Wooo hooooo! I am off to the fire department, please firemen, wrap tight pressure bandages around me and proceed high or low at your leisure. I am definitely going to acquire white coat syndrome and transfer all my medical needs to the firefighters, sigh.
Grocery story: this is my guilty pleasure, I really enjoy it. Maybe it's because there's not much to do around here. Don't feel guilty: feel rage and indignation that we have been subjected to fiersome propaganda that we must all drive cars! There should be mass transport services at ever corner fuelled by decarbonised renewable solar substances that simultaneously compost. Instead, we were plied with four-wheeled so-called freedom machines that have trapped us. Hating these obnoxious chore-inducers is the correct and only reaction. Order groceries online, practise homeopathy and place the city under siege until everyone is riding bikes. If that's too extreme, just go to a boxing class and hit things until you feel better. It works!
Wooo hooooo! I am off to the fire department, please firemen, wrap tight pressure bandages around me and proceed high or low at your leisure. I am definitely going to acquire white coat syndrome and transfer all my medical needs to the firefighters, sigh.
Grocery story: this is my guilty pleasure, I really enjoy it. Maybe it's because there's not much to do around here. Don't feel guilty: feel rage and indignation that we have been subjected to fiersome propaganda that we must all drive cars! There should be mass transport services at ever corner fuelled by decarbonised renewable solar substances that simultaneously compost. Instead, we were plied with four-wheeled so-called freedom machines that have trapped us. Hating these obnoxious chore-inducers is the correct and only reaction. Order groceries online, practise homeopathy and place the city under siege until everyone is riding bikes. If that's too extreme, just go to a boxing class and hit things until you feel better. It works!
KB beat me to it. I was going to suggest it may be White Coat Syndrome too
Oh yes, I'm familiar with the White Coat Syndrome. I think I also have "Nazi Nurse & Doctor's Offices that Operate Like Factories" Syndrome.
Good luck with your doc appointment tomorrow, it can't be too bad :) Can't say I'm a super fan of goign to teh doctors but I always compare my situation to that of people who are scheduled for some freaky ops, knowing that even that might never help them... And then I feel a whole lot better! xo
I attribute my fine health to staying as far the hell away from doctors as possible. yep, you pretty much have to peel me off the front of a truck to get me to one.
There was the time I had a little too much tequila, fell off my new red high heels and broke me neck. I was pretty happy to see one then. But, really, what're the odds of that happening again?
She added to your blood pressure by about 20 points with that! Dang!
I prefer self maintaining cars, too. I have the opposite BP, problem. It was so low at my dr. apt. they were surprised I was alive!
Hey, I hate all those things, too! And now I feel bad :(
Blood pressure tests are one of the very few things about medical anything that does NOT freak me out. I haven't blogged about it in awhile, but I am an avid hypochondriac and have typically expected Bad News on just about every medical test or procedure I've ever had. Except blood pressure, for some reason.
I pretty much relate to this, in terms of having to deal with and spend too much money on, things that I know I can't totally control anyway, like I can spend $300 dollars on my car and it STILL might break down, meet a $1200 deductible and STILL have an undiagnosed stomach problem (my gut just hates me), and go to the grocery store for just plain basic staples and still spend $90. Actually, I love grocery store shopping, when its in a cool store like Whole Foods or Trader Joes, when the checkbook is feelin' no pain, but I tend to think the rest of it is just my reaction to the things that annoy me most about so-called civilized society. I don't even know if I'm making sense, but I am gonna blame that on my stomach!
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