My Health Scare

I'm finally well enough to touch the laptop. I don't miss it much for the past few weeks as I had to rest and it was a welcomed relief.

My silence is evident that I definitely needed to get away from the laptop and work. And I did.

It has been a couple of weeks since I had my health scare.

On 21st October, I went to SDMC (formerly SJMC) to see a doctor based on the recommendation of the family GP (General Practitioner) the night before as I had extremely high blood pressure. I went to see the family GP as I had been coughing very badly and found it hard to breathe.

When I visited the doc at the hospital, he was concerned about my BP and ordered some tests. I went for my chest x-ray and ultrasound scans first. I even had my blood drawn too. When the x-ray results came back, I had to be referred to the cardiologist.

That was the first scare but I was staying calm.

The cardiologist saw me, had my BP checked again and immediately asked me to stop all movement and ordered that I be admitted for full bed rest as my BP got very high and my heart was not doing so well. He had me go for an echo-cardiogram test.

I did not expect to be admitted but to be sent home with medication and perhaps a couple of days of MC.

Instead, the doctor ordered me to be admitted and have full bed rest. That meant that wherever I go, I have to be pushed in a wheelchair.

For that 1st night, my BP had a lot of difficulty being stabilized, so much so that I had to be given medication under the tongue to get the blood pressure to go down. My systolic BP hovered around the 200 region which was major cause for concern.

The blood pressure eventually did drop after I did some relaxing breathing exercises and bed rest. I ignored all phone calls except for those from my family. Some folks from work did come to visit but not my PM. She kept calling and probably wanted to ask about work or when I would be back. Not once did she visit me while I was at the hospital.

By Thursday, my BP was nearly back to normal and the doctor ordered a CT scan of my kidneys. Even then, my other PM called me just minutes before I went in to ask about work when I've e-mailed everyone about the status the day before I was admitted into the hospital.

Anyway, the CT scan was quite interesting where I ended up having an itchy allergic reaction to the dye. I had to take an anti-histamine which made me sleep. However, I did not realize that the nurses had twisted my IV needle in the back of my hand too tightly that I was bleeding for a bit. By the time I was ready to head back to my room, there was a small pool of blood on the floor and a slight pain in my hand.

Then, I had a call from the hospital telling me that they need to draw more blood from me as they did not have enough for a test. They wanted me to come in but I told that I'm already admitted in the hospital. Hmmm... Nevertheless, I gave them my room number so that they can come the following morning to get my blood.

I had a lot of visitors and was shocked that the customer came to visit too. My best friends dropped by, and one even sat down for 1 hour to give me a scolding. She had the biggest scare of her life as she said that she never expected to visit me at the cardiology ward.

I finally got discharged that Saturday and the doctor gave me 1 week to rest at home. I had an appointment to see the doctor again the following week. The doctor even assigned me a nutritionist to help me educate me about managing my conditions. Aside from the mandatory diet control, I've got to slowly get back to my exercise regime which cannot be too vigorous.

As of today, I will have a few more appointments with the doctors for the next few months before I return to the family GP for follow-up consultations.

I'm currently still resting as the doctor has given me another week off after I complained about feeling dizzy and being prone to black-outs due to my blood pressure falling very low.

However, I'm finding it hard to rest properly as I've to help out with the twins who are really a handful now. They cry constantly, cannot decide if they want to eat or sleep or burp or cry. They cry even when they are feeding!!

The biggest lesson learned is that I've not been taking good care of myself. Not enough "me-time" and too much "work-time". I'll always remember the look my family GP gave me about my attitude towards work. He said, "It can wait. Your health can't."

Hope that most of you know about your "numbers". No, this is not how much $$ you have in your bank a/c, your stock portfolio, # of skills/work experience you have but the following:

• What is your waist-line, BMI (Body Mass Index), % of fat?
• What is your blood pressure (during rest)?
• What is your heart rate (during rest)?
  
• What is your cholesterol levels?
• What is your fasting glucose level?

These are just 5 basic "numbers". If you have not done your annual health check-up, please do so.. especially when you are approaching 30 or above it.

After my scare, most of my friends are planning to do their annual check-ups and some will be doing their blood test for the 1st time.

To my friends, and colleagues who prayed and visited, I thank you guys for keeping me in your thoughts. I'm feeling much better now and am getting on track to being active again.

I've got to learn to manage my stress levels better as any stress will cause 3 things to happen: 1) increased heart rate (which is bad), 2) increased blood pressure (which is very bad) and 3) increased blood sugar (which is very very bad and may cause my kidneys to tapao if not managed well).

Take care all!