I decided in elementary school that I wanted to be a doctor. My father is a (now retired) high school principal and value of education was something I grew up with. There was no doubt about that. But at some time I decided that health was just as important, perhaps even more so. I put health at the top of the priority list then, and you should place it there now. Without good health it’s very hard to take advantage of anything else…..school, money, a great job, etc. Poor health can make it difficult or impossible to enjoy the company of family and friends.
Maintaining good health should be at the top of everyone’s priority list.
A few days ago I was called to the emergency department to see a patient with a stroke. She was 56 with longstanding high blood pressure. She had stopped taking her blood pressure medicines five years ago. Why? Because she read the list of possible side effects and decided she didn’t want to risk any of those things. Now she did a smart thing in reading through that information. But it wasn’t very smart to stop taking the antihypertensive. She just stopped. Suddenly. On her own. Without discussing it with her doctor.
So there she was on the hospital stretcher. I could barely understand her garbled speech. She couldn’t move the left side of her face. She was unable to move her left arm and leg. Her husband stood across from me, on the other side of the stretcher, looking dazed.
I told them that I was surprised that she was awake, and able to talk to me. She had one of the largest bleeds I’d ever seen in a person who was awake, alert, and able to speak. She ended up going to surgery to have that blood clot taken out. Her speech is now better, but not perfect. Her left arm and leg strength have improved, but are still not normal.
Was it worth it, stopping the antihypertensives? I think if you ask her that today, she’ll say no. What was she thinking when she stopped taking that medicine?
She figured she could avoid the possibility of any of those side effects happening to her. Unfortunately she didn’t consider the fact that she was significantly increasing her risk of having a stroke. And, like many people she had none of the symptoms that people sometimes get with high blood pressure. No headaches, no dizziness or blurred vision. She felt great. That’s why hypertension is known as “the silent killer”.
It’s all very deceiving. While you’re feeling great, blood vessels all over your body are slowly, silently getting wrecked by the effects of high blood pressure. This is not a chance you want to take. You won’t know if, or when, that big one’s coming. As it has turned out so far, my patient survived, and is doing well in rehab. It could’ve been much worse. She could have died.
Every Day…..Say NO To Stroke!
AB Fraser, MD
