An important message in my Lenten journey blog break/fast: Get your blood pressure checked! I don’t care how old you are, or how well you feel, get it checked. We’ve all seen the ads with professional athletes and famous people admonishing us to get it checked. Don’t brush it off.
It’s too complicated to explain here, but a friend encouraged me to get my BP checked after months of battling what I thought were sinus headaches. Besides the headaches I felt pretty good. Turns out that headaches can be a symptom of high BP. I’ve never had hypertension, but my BP was sky-high. Fortunately, I have a good doctor who is very thorough and he wasn’t satisfied with just prescribing BP meds for me. He also sent me for a scan to eliminate a rare cause of high BP. The scan revealed an abnormality, which led to additional scans that showed something more serious. I have a long medical journey ahead, but if I had continued to ignore my symptoms it could’ve been far too late. I’m grateful for my friend, my doctor and the specialists to whom he referred me.
I have no doubt that my friend was simply God’s providential tool. It only takes a few minutes to get your BP checked and it’s free. There’s no excuse. Hypertension can be a sign of heart, kidney, or other medical issues. There’s a reason it’s called the “silent killer”, as serious damage can be done if it goes undetected too long. Do your family and personal health a simple favor by getting your BP checked regularly. It may just save your life! Okay, back to my Lenten blog fast. Fellow pilgrims, hold fast to Christ!
