Shortly after getting home, my wife called, “Can you go down to the drug store and pick up the prescription I just phoned in?”
“Sure,” I said as I grabbed my keys and beat feet out the door.
Once there, I had to wait around for them to get filled. Bored with walking around the store, I sat down to wait.
That’s when I saw the blood pressure machine.
“What the hell,” I thought as I sat down to get myself a reading.
One-fifty-five over 81 read the screen. Once again, I took it, but the numbers weren’t much better.
“Well,” I thought, “these store machines are notoriously miscalibrated. I’ll go home and take it the old-fashioned way.”
Once home, I pulled out my old stethoscope and pressure cuff and took my B/P a third time. The numbers were worse than ever, 171 over 90.
One-forty-four over 77 is normal for a man of my age. So, yes, dangerously high, and I immediately called the VA and scheduled an appointment.
The irony of ironies — I was at the drug store to pick up my wife’s blood pressure medication, which she’s been on for the last decade.