Senseless blood pressure sarcasm : Blame the machine edition
Last Tuesday’s dental appointment: Back molar tooth pull
A dental assistant puts the blood pressure cuff on my arm. It inflates automatically until my bone wants to break.
“Your blood pressure is 205 over 145,” she announced, repeating what a piece of machinery wants her to say.
Considering the fact that I had been doing this 3 hours before…
…though not as well, it seemed odd to have a BP reading that should have made the tooth explode from its socket, along with every artery in my body.
After another attempt to get a reading (this one was 203 over one hundred-something), the dentist paced around as he thought about what he should do.
He wanted to call an ambulance.
I asked, “Do I look red in the face?”
“No.”
“Do I look distressed?”
“No.”
He finally had me sign every piece of CYA (cover your@$$) paperwork they had in their inventory.
As usual, I was relaxed in the chair as he numbed the area and pulled out a tooth that was, by his admission, ready to break.
After leaving, I told my better half about it. We went to the pharmacy for the antibiotic that I was going to need for the next week, and there it was — the do-it-yourself blood pressure checker-upper. His BP was 110/60. Mine was 194 over something that was under 100.
He has muscular arms. Mine are toothpicks and by the time the automatic cuff is ready to take a reading, my flesh is trying to meld into the bone.
“This is Bull$#!t,” I said. “The last thing I want is my insurance hounding me to get a million other tests.”
So… I called my endocrinologists office and asked for a consultation.
“My dentist thinks I’m dead,” I told the answerphone. “I think the automatic cuff system is cr@p, and I need to have my doctor take my blood pressure the old fashioned way.”
The new receptionist called and asked, “Why can’t you go to your primary care provider?”
“Everytime I go there, I get sick. April 2019, whatever I picked up at that office had the same symptoms as COVID-19.”
So, I was given an appointment for a consultation.
Today: Consultation.
My doctor seems to be one of the few remaining people on Earth who know how to read blood pressure using a regular cuff and stethoscope.
He listened to my story while I sat like this in his office…
…with my eyes open and not identifying as male.
We agreed that people who don’t know how to take blood pressure the intelligent way also don’t know how to count change back either.
He was chuckling when he said, “154 over 81. It’s nowhere near 205 over 145.”
“This makes me wonder… how many people are on blood pressure medications that don’t need it?” I asked.
He thought about it, but didn’t answer.
Every time the dumbed-down version of taking blood pressure is used, that might be one more person taking an unnecessary drug.
Now, instead of thinking I’m jumping on a diving board and ready to plunge into my grave, the insurance company might be satisfied that I’m not yet ready to do the brain stroke.
Here’s my story. I had a little acid reflux, or so I thought. My wife called 911. My BP was 225 over 100 taken by the paramedics. Off to the hospital I went. The next day I had a stent put in a heart artery that was 95% blocked.
I would have never thought of calling 911. Just a little indigestion. If I were you I would go to a cardiologist and get an ultrasound of your heart. I’ve just picked you up as a blogger friend. I’m not giving you permission to leave yet.
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Thanks. 🙂
My better half just took my BP the old fashioned way and it’s 144/82. I will, however, ask for an ultrasound of the heart because you make a very good point: It’s better to eliminate all of the possibilities.
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Blood pressure medication is big business in the U.S. My husband’s doctor wanted him on it even though he doesn’t have hbp, because my husband is 75 and has a family history of hbp, and so is presumed to be at risk. The man doesn’t have a speck of fat anywhere on him and he goes out and rides his bicycle twenty or thirty miles on a regular basis, but the doctor wanted him on blood pressure meds anyway, just because. If they do it to people like him, they’re doing it to lots of other people who don’t need that crap.
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He might try doing what I have had do many times if a doctor insists on giving me medications I know I don’t need. I just say, “No.” If the doctor throws a fit, I find another doctor. I have, in the past, walked out of a doctor’s office after telling him the word “doctor” is not spelled G.O.D.
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He did say no, thank goodness. That particular doctor retired recently, and I don’t know if he’ll have this problem with whomever he starts going to next, but I told him that if anyone starts putting pressure on him to take drugs he doesn’t need, he should say, “Sorry, but my wife will leave me if I take that stuff.” (Or, “You can take your statins and stick them where the moon never shines,” but he’s too polite to say that.)
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I like both replies — about the wife and sticking it. 🙂
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I have often found the systolic reading (the first one) can vary quite a bit (at least on machines you can buy to test this). Although I normally don’t take my blood pressure, if I do and the first number seems too high, I push the button again and rerun the test. It is often lower.
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It’s good to have your own blood pressure monitor, but the most reliable system is to have someone who knows how to read the numbers the old fashioned way. People need to start demanding an old-fashioned manual reading by a nurse over 40 if the auto-cuff finds the BP is too high.
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I’d never thought about all the people now taking blood pressure meds because of faulty readings but of course there must be loads of them.
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It didn’t occur to me either, until I saw a BP reading that was impossible. Thought I’d share this information. The more people who know, the more people who can say, “I want a second opinion.”
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Glad nothing serious happened, if you have taken a step and got nervous this story would have changed upside down. Brave work Joelle, you did asked right questions and you did sent to right doctor to double check.. old fashioned way… always rock ✨😺
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Thanks. 🙂
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I have this trouble with blood pressure readings I call it white coat syndrome 💜💜💜keep breathing 😅
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Too bad you can’t have your BP taken with a regular cuff while meditating. Doctor’s don’t think about “white coat syndrome.” It is very real for many people.
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It certainly is for me, also husband syndrome 😅😅
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I 100% agree with your experience. I find that if I sneak 2 fingers under the band as they are putting it on we come closer to an accurate reading. I always ask them to read it with the old fashioned method and sadly some of the young ones have no clue. Problem seems it was designed by someone who thought only very muscle bound arms would ever be used in it. Maybe design a men’s version and a women’s. 🙂
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Thanks for the tip.
It is a bit concerning to think that so much faith is being put into a failed 1-size-fits-all way to read blood pressure.
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Was recently in a lift at a major hospital in Melbourne mentioned i would not have passed the temperature check a week earlier due to having a cold. A women left the lift in a huff. Wanted to reach out & stroke her arm stating “you’re next!” Cheers,H
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Isn’t it strange that the incidents of flu, heart failure, stroke, and cancer were greatly reduced in 2020 for the first time in…forever.
If you told me 5 years ago, people would be emulating Howard Hughes in the latter part of his life, I’d laugh. Now, it’s just sad.
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