The proverbial worry-wort

I went to the doctor yesterday for just a standard three month check up and was alarmed to find out that my blood pressure reading was 140/85, which is considered pre-hypertensive. I've had readings this high before in the past and it's beginning to concern me that I may have a hereditary hypertension that runs on my maternal side. Hopefully, that was just a random thing and not a harbinger of oncoming problems, but I have been experiencing headaches when I do certain kinds of exercises when I work out, so I began to suspect that something might be wrong that my body is trying to tell me about. I'm going to keep an eye on my BP for the next few days and see what kinds of readings I am getting and if they're consistently high, then I'd better start worrying about it. Otherwise, I guess I won't worry that much if it was just a fluke or something. Still, having a reading that high was enough to cause me alarm to where I called the doctor office back today to see if I should be concerned. If my readings remain high, they said, then yes, I ought to be concerned, but if not, then don't get my knickers in a twist over it. It's just that so many folks my age are beginning to drop dead of heart attacks and strokes and other preventable conditions that I don't exactly want to be numbered with them. I want to be strong and healthy in my middle age and I do work out and stay fit, but even if that's not enough to control blood pressure, then I have to wonder what's up with that. I'm trying to watch my sodium intake and be more aware of what I am eating, but it is the time of year when I am drawn to more heavy comfort foods that tend to pack on the pounds, and to add to my woes, I've gained about 10 pounds recently, which dismays me quite a bit. That can't be helping my BP situation and if I endeavour to drop the weight and redouble my efforts at eating right, then in addition to working out, I should be able to get some of these extra pounds off and get my BP under control without meds.

Another thing alarming me is that in May while at the doctor's office one day, I began to feel ill and almost blacked out. The doctor came back into the room and they did an EKG and a blood draw and found that I did have a high blood sugar reading, but that it was hard to tell how correct that was because of the fact that it was at 2:00 in the afternoon, after I'd already eaten quite a bit. So it could have just been a false reading. The doctor told me yesterday that unless the number was over 200 (for the record, mine was 117), that it wasn't really cause for alarm, but that it could indicate a pre-diabetic condition. He couldn't really tell unless he did a fasting blood test, which I am going to go in for on Monday morning since I am off work that day because I work next Saturday. I hope that it comes out OK and that it doesn't show any pre-diabetic tendencies. I've cut down how much sugar I eat and I only use raw sugar in my coffee. I stopped all of the gratuitous snacking I was doing at work in hopes that it will contribute to a weight loss and I have stopped drinking so much coffee as well. So I don't know what to expect but I suppose it wouldn't be a bad idea to ask for a cholesterol test as well in addition to blood sugar, just to get an accurate reading on that number. I see billboards all the time that encourage people to know their BP, blood sugar and cholesterol numbers, and that information can indeed save your life, so I am going to redouble my efforts to monitor all of those so that I don't develop any serious health issues. After all, the best way to bring down health care costs is to be proactive in making sure that you engage in preventive care instead of waiting until you have serious enough health problems to where it becomes an expensive matter to treat it. If everyone did that (doctors and patients alike), I'm sure we'd have far more inexpensive and more efficient health care in this country. We can only hope.......