The Wedding People - Alison Espach

Kickdrum Heart

I was at my PCP recently and taking my blood pressure is always a challenge.  My upper arm is short so the blood pressure cuff is too long for it, and my upper arm is too big for a child sized cuff.  Typically it is best using a manual cuff instead of automatic but many places don't use them anymore.  So my PCP and I were thinking through options and he suggested I purchase a wrist cuff that I can take with me to various providers and to also measure my blood pressure on my own if the wrist cuff reads differently than a standard cuff I'll have at least established a baseline to see when it is low or high.

My PCP worked in a military hospital and shared about measuring blood pressure on individuals with prosthetic limbs, and in some cases needing to measure on a thigh or ankle if an arm wasn't available.  So I asked how you measure blood pressure on an individual missing all four limbs and he said "you don't" which surprised and saddened me.  I would have thought it could be measured on your torso.  Thinking about it more the whole process seems so antiquated to me, filling a cuff wrapped around your arm with air and then counting the sounds you hear with a stethoscope as the air is released from the cuff.  With all of the advances in medical technology it is strange to me that another way to measure blood pressure hasn't been developed.  

End scene.

Chandelier

 It is June and I feel like throwing up.  

We are coming out of one busy season and going into another and Surgery Deux is scheduled for August 7th.  Summer break starts on Wednesday and ends August 13th so in many ways it feels like summer is over before it has even begun.  

I have been in a flurry of making appointments, reservations, pinching pennies and paper work..."getting my affairs in order" which is both satisfying and depressing.  

Taking things one day at a time does help, it helps to compartmentalize everything I have to do, everything I'm feeling, and to be able to see when there's a break or what I powered through.  And there are good things sprinkled in between now and then.  

We get to celebrate M, my Dad, Dads in general.

B gets to rock out.

Get a few days off.

Hopefully get to see some girlfriends.

And we're kicking off summer with a trip to a cat cafe with Grandma.  

So I will focus on the good, make good choices, and protect my peace.

Hopefully not throw up.