I'm Gonna Stop Going to Doctors.

Back in May, I went to a urologist. He took a look at my blood pressure (290/150!), freaked the hell out, and sent me to the Emergency Room.

Yesterday, I went to a new doctor, a basic family practitioner sort. He looked over my records, looked at my blood pressure (180/110), freaked the hell out, and sent me to the Emergency Room.

Fuck's sake. I've checked my BP half a dozen times, keeping a record of it (mostly because of this new guy, so I can soothe his hysterics), in the past 48 hours. It hasn't changed from 160/80 in all that time. If this second doc had noted a few details, he might have been more relaxed:

1) I drove to the office in a car with no air conditioning. It was in the 90's outside.

2) I hiked across a parking lot and along several hallways to get to his office.

3) I'm on a beta-blocker which limits my heart rate to 60-70 beats per minute, and it doesn't speed up like it should when I'm doing something like walking on a hot Summer day across a parking lot.

It only makes sense that my blood pressure would go up despite the meds I'm taking, and that it'd take some time for it to come back down. When I had the same high reading last week during a doctor visit, that doc nodded and said it made sense. He didn't freak the hell out. He just told me to keep an eye on the BP, try to keep it at 160/something or below, and have a nice day.

New dude wanted a CAT scan and blood samples and all this other stuff because my kidneys could be failing from lack of blood and I could die right there in the exam room, EVERYBODY PANIC!!!!!!1!!!

I'm getting tired of the freak-out-and-rush-me-to-the-ER stuff every time I darken the threshold of a new doctor's office. Sheesh. Now I'm scheduled for an aortic ultrasound on August 24. I can see the need for that--but this will be ANOTHER new doctor. Maybe I should call ahead to the ER and have them reserve my regular room.