Doctors

Perhaps the fiasco of the day is why I don't like doctors.

Woke up this morning and had a very low blood pressure reading (105/70) so I decided to go in and have them check me out, sign me off, let me get on with life. Well, they couldn't just take my blood pressure. I had to fill out paperwork, make an APPOINTMENT, then go back in at 2:00! Right in the middle of a beautiful day.

Ok.

Went in at 2:00, got my height and weight again. Took my blood pressure, and of course it just skyrocketed. I had taken my meter in as well as the record I've been keeping. That didn't mean crap to them as far as noticing that I'm fine and they could sign me off. What's the verdict? Well, she PRESCRIBED a diuretic essentially to lower my reading so that I go back in a week and demonstrate that it helped. (She WAS trying to help me out, she told me we could use this to drop it, get signed off, then I could stop taking this stuff and just lower it naturally...like I'm doing.) By the way, as soon as I got home I measured my BP again...well within "acceptable" levels. UGH.

Yep, this drug is taken once in the morning. It "tells" my kidneys to not hold onto as much salt and water. Umm, so it'll just dehydrate me right? Pretty much. "You'll go to the bathroom a lot more." Great.

Despite being able to show a positive trend, explain why it's so high in the doctor's office, show that I'm in good shape...didn't mean a thing. I had to pay $20 up front for the doctor's visit. Then I paid another $20 for the medication. (However, I have enough refills to last me half a year.) So a simple test took about 3 hours total to complete...I paid $40, and now I'm going to be on record showing I've taken blood pressure medication. ALL THIS, so I can walk 3 miles in 45 minutes with a 45 lb pack. Assuming I pass that, then what it means is ALL THIS so I MAY go on fires this summer.

Legalities and politics have screwed up common sense.