I'll be honest (side note, why do pastor's always feel compelled to start a personal story with "I'll be honest", how often are we not? Anyway, I digress), I have not made a habit of taking my blood pressure as often as I should, but I started again, recently, and to my horror my blood pressure was pretty consistently 150-160/80-90 at night. Normally it is pretty good in the morning, because I take my blood pressure medicine in the moring. I messaged my doctor and he reminded me that my blood pressure will fluctuate during the day, depending on activity, stress level, time of day, how tired I am, etc. I understand all that, but I get worried because the one thing Dr. Piper stressed above all else is make sure my blood pressue is under control, because I only have one vetebral artery left and I don't want that one to blow! I don't think I need to be on different blood pressue medicine, as these seem to work, in general. My question is, for those who have had a stroke and now have blood pressue issues, do you have a "rescue" medicine (much like an asthmatic has a "resuce inhaler") in case your blood pressue spikes? Just wondering.
Oh, by the way, Life is a gift, treasure it!
On December 8, 2008, my life changed forever. I had a double sided cerebellar stroke with 2 brain stem compressions. It was not until December 10, 40 hours after my stroke, that surgery was finally done to relieve the pressure. Dr. Piper, the neuro-surgeon from Iowa Methodist hospital in Des Moines, told my wife that surgery was nothing more than an attempt to save my life, but that it would not erase the deficiencies as a result of the stroke. Although she admits that she did not really understand what Dr. Piper had just said, my wife, Laura, agreed to the surgery and the care team performed a decrompessive craniotomy, to hopefully relieve the pressure and allow my brain to function somewhat normally. For those who have followed my blog for the last 14+ years, the surgery was successful, I returned to the church and I now live a relatively normal life, although I do have some pretty severe, though not always visible, defieciencies. I really thought that life could not get any worse th
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