Thursday 01/21/2021 note: 21st day, of the 21st year, of the 21st Century.
Dropped out of the aerobics class when it hadn’t started five minutes late. Kind of crochety reaction, I wish I’d waited a few minutes longer.
Anyway at 10:15 I set out to walk to my appointment with Dr. Dibiase (dee bee ah say) at PAMF. Which of course only took about 15 minutes so I was half an hour early. Anyway we talked about medications and how my BP wasn’t as low as it should be. She made a change, and also ordered some labs. I’m to see her by video next time, in a month.
After lunch I put in the request for the video appointment (later granted, although not in the time interval I requested, but a week later), and made a firm appointment for the lab work. I have to be fasting, and will drive to Sunnyvale for that on Monday morning.
Oh, and the Palo Alto Dental office called to offer a hygiene appointment. I had thought from their site that they weren’t doing hygiene until June, but apparently not so. Anyway, got that scheduled.
With nothing to do, I decided to haul out the novel again. See if I can make the opening more grabby. Or I might possibly just self-publish it this time. Spent an hour going over the file of notes and back-story, and tidying up the folders where all the related stuff has accumulated.
At the doctor’s office I studied some posters about taking your own BP, and asked her about it, and found out I’ve been doing it wrong. I have been doing it sitting on my bed, with the test arm relaxed on my lap. Turns out it makes a difference, you are supposed to have the arm elevated on a table. (But the nurse doesn’t actually do that when she takes your vitals at the office.) Also, the first one in the morning? Immediately on arising. Get up, urinate, take BP. I’d been waiting until after I’d been up an hour and took my shower and all. Also wait 30 minutes after eating — I’d been taking it right after lunch and supper.
So I start a new regime of taking BP, with arm supported on the kitchen table, after arising and 30 minutes after meals. The first two I did that way are significantly lower than I was getting. Maybe I will hold up the meds tweak she suggested, until I have a few days of data.
Codgerville 