Downed By High Blood

I went to a low-income/free clinic on Monday to find out if I'm entering menopause.  Currently, I have no health insurance, and I can't afford to see my regular doctor for checkups and prescriptions.  It was discovered that my blood pressure was sky high.  "You need to see the internist," the helpful nurse told me.  Silently, I grumbled at my late dad.  I inherited both high blood pressure and diabetes from him.  The doctor I saw wrote prescriptions for high blood pressure and diabetes pills. He told me of some pharmacies where I could get prescription meds at low prices.

I called Pastor Roger before I went to the gym to ask if it was okay for me to take off tomorrow morning to fill the prescription.  I have to go up to Costco to get a deal.  He agreed, but later, I realized that I have another appointment on Tuesday at the closest Workforce (Unemployment) office.  "Damn.  If it's not one thing, it's another," I thought as I walked to the gym.  It's busy this week because I have to get the committee reports together for the church's annual business meeting this upcoming Sunday.  I don't want to take much time away from getting that done.  I'll just have to get the prescription filled later on Tuesday or later in the week.

I begged off sparring, even though, I had a pick of guys to spar with (Carlos, Jamil, Vic, Johnny).  I told Alan of my medical woes, and he told me, "My neck has been bothering me for days.  I keep waiting for the kink to work itself out, but it hasn't yet."  He said he wasn't taking anything for it.  "You should see somebody.  It might be a pulled muscle," I suggested.

I didn't do much of a workout.  Since my high blood pressure was out of control, I figured I'd better take it easy.  Most of my time was spent recording the sparring between Carlos, Jamil, Vic, Johnny, Alan, Kevin, and a new guy named St. Louis, on my digital camera.  St. Louis came in with a woman, whose name I didn't catch.  Alan thought she might be a good sparring partner for both Oksana and myself.  I attempted to upload the sparring to YouTube, but I kept getting error messages.  I'll have to figure out what the problem is.

Carlos admitted he's at 195 pounds.  "That number is supposed to be going down, not up," Alan said.  "It seems I just can't stop eating.  I do most of the cooking at home.  I'm tasting while I'm cooking, then turning around and eating after I've finished cooking," Carlos explained.  I'm at 175 pounds, having gained back ten pounds over the holidays, so I could sympathize with Carlos.  It's frustrating, because I seemed to be on a roll, and now I'm back to square one again.  The visit to the doctor just pointed out how far gone things have become.

"High blood pressure is not the only problem.  There's another issue looming as well," I told Alan as he dropped me off near my apartment.  "What's that?" he asked.  "I suspect I'm entering menopause," I told him, without going into the details of the symptoms I've noticed.  He told me about his wife's experiences with it, then smiled and said, "We all have our crosses to bear."