Showing posts with label blood pressure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blood pressure. Show all posts

Friday, February 21, 2025

Find Your Inner Peace




 I just thought I'd share some colorful calming stuff today.
These are photos from last April when the forest was beginning to awaken.


I listened to the news this morning. Not good.

I am taking the rest of the day off from the news as yesterday was a cluster-f-ck. Pardon my French. It started off by an event on the way to my doctor's appointment.

Olive's husband's dog ran out [they wear electronic collars and always just run to the ditch and stop]. 

Apparently the collar didn't work and he went right into my front right of the car just under the headlight and next to the front wheel. 


Stunned, I went 20 feet and stopped and couldn't see the dog anywhere. So I called and Olive answered breathlessly that she had the dogs in the house and she was sorry. And I was sorry. And my car suffered damage to the front piece that I'd just replaced a year and a half ago from the great liquid cement fiasco.

UFFDAH!

So then it was time to see my doctor. She is a PA that I've seen since I've lived here. She is much younger than I am so I must have started seeing her when she was 'brand new'. 

I started to keep a daily log of the weird stuff since I started to have some strange muscle and joint pain at the end of December. 

Short notes.
Date, what happened, pain level, tylenol taken, or heat, or ice, ... for each day something happened. The good days were noted and I told her those days were active days for me in which I felt normal enough to hike and enjoy life.

I also gave her my 'log' of BP's. She kept that and now next week I have to go in once more just to give in a week's new log and a readings. I'll see a nurse who will check my BP and see if the cuff is as accurate human reader. [A bit of sarcasm there]. 

She did note that if she gave me BP meds she was afraid I'd bottom out a lot. 

I had her note the stars next to the higher readings with short hand notes that explained that things that disturbed the balance of things which make my BP peak. 

You know the balance of my inner peace and contentment....which I'm sure I am in control of each day...you know that inner peace thing....


"Oh your blood pressure is elevated today," said Anne, she is so sweet. She gives me the eye.

"I hit my friend's dog on the way here." I reply. "Dog's okay. I'm not. I feel like my inner peace took a crap."

Anne smiles and we move on to what she feels are pertinent. This is an ER after visit after all.

Protocol says that the chest pains were not a heart attack and probably not angina. To rule other things out I'll have a Stress Test.

"You are at that AGE now where we have to think about these things," Anne says in her nice but firm voice.

I grasp me chest and go all wide eyed. "What? I'm at THAT age. OMG, I thought I'd be dead by THAT age." I blink and smile sweetly.

See, Anne gets me. She chuckles and says, "You are that AGE." She didn't throw me out of the little room we were in.

I am poked, prodded, listened to and examined and then I go see the vampire so she can take vials of blood. [Do lab workers drink that stuff??? Kidding]

We discuss that it could have been anxiety. But why the weird pain? She looks at the notes and the logs and then at the side effects of Prolia and says it didn't happen in the first weeks of Prolia?

I'll address that at another time. I have a theory.

Good news though. 


Anne knows that I am stuck at home more in the winter. She asks if I have 'support' and I tell her about my Legends Class and my Wolf Pack ... well coffee/workout buddies but that sounds so lame.

Anne concludes that we'll do the follow ups, the Stress Test, and that I need to go to class with my friends even if I can't do much.

She then forbids me to go hiking until after the Stress Test. 

Do you think I can follow her rules for the next 3 days?

Be like Charlie find your

Inner Peace....


Ps~ The dog is fine, he is sore but he will be okay. Nathan came out and saw the damage and told me to get it fixed and they will pay for it. 
No hard feelings between us and a quick hug while standing in the road this morning.


Tuesday, November 27, 2018

Jumping Rocks and other fine things



Good morning!

That is how the other members of the 6am CrossFit class greet me. The 5am class is finishing up and they all say Good Morning and actually mean it!

My husband doesn't quite get the allure of CrossFit. He calls it "Workout".

I started doing this in mid October. So what changes have I noticed?

I have something to look forward to each day and can have good social interaction and the workout relieves stress.

One of the measurable changes I've noticed is my blood pressure has changed dramatically.
I take it in the morning and the afternoon...not because I am ordered to, but because Rich is supposed to monitor his.
Earlier this summer my blood pressure readings were a bit on the high side. 
130ish/80ish.

On days I don't work out it hovers at 115ish to 120 over the 70's.
After working out? 106/68.

Hmmm. It makes one think about blood pressure and exercise. It is easy to take a pill and hope for the best...but...
I'm thinking this workout deal is much much better.
[Ok, off my soap box now!]

What else?
I used to struggle with peeling hay off a round bale and tossing it over the electric fence. I opted to shove it under the fence instead.
Over the weekend, I discovered I can easily toss fork-loads of hay with no effort.

Balance.
I used to be so surefooted. But the past year I found myself ...well, maybe not as surefooted as I used to be?
CrossFit works well with balance exercises. Most of the warm ups and many workouts promote balance.
While walking in the creek yesterday I came to a spot that I had to climb down a steep rocky bank to get to a place that I wanted to photograph.

Once I got down, I had a choice, get my feet soaked 1/2 mile from home, or jump to where I wanted to be. I used a skill learned from Box Jumping to launch to a rock clump in the middle of the creek.

And I stood there with the water flowing around me, grinning like an idiot. My balance was better!

See? Better!
Yes!
My creek jump...the banks are about 4 feet high...


And this is all worth it. Even after hiking to the end of the valley and back, I still felt energetic.

Anyway, the reason I jumped was for this shot:


And further towards home, I straddled some logs and got some very cool Ice Fingers...



I am happy that Gun Season for Deer is over. I can wander about again.

Tonight I am going to the LaCrosse Camera Club meeting and we are going to review 'night' shooting and tour the Rotary Lights by the river.

Color me happy.