Stress Puppy

I went by the Minute Clinic Friday after work for the second time in a few weeks to try to do something about this earache that's been bugging me and keeping me awake since before Christmas. I'm not one of those people who wants a scrip for antibiotics every time he gets the sniffles, but enough is enough with this darn infection.

But part of me also thought that some of the ear pain might be related to some TMJ issues. I've never had a problem with that before, but I've noticed I've been gritting my teeth and clenching my jaw lately when some work-related stress has been getting to me.

Now regular readers of the Dry Spot know that I used to give platelets all the time. Until I had a little incident with the Red Cross. That of course turned out to be no big deal.

One of the good things about giving platelets so often was that it was like getting a mini-physical every month. I've always been a pretty healthy kinda guy with blood pressure readings in the 115/75 range month in and month out. So I wasn't too concerned about it when the Minute Clinic nurse practitioner slid the BP cuff over my arm. Yeah, I've been pretty uptight at work and a good friend and coworker got a really bad cancer diagnosis and I've been dealing with some issues with an aging parent who has gotten herself into a financial jam and I'm involved in a couple of really tenuous business ventures and haven't been sleeping well because of this damn earache, but all in all I felt fairly healthy.

156 over 94.

Crap.

Maybe I am a little tense. I took it again a half hour later and it was within 15 points of normal, but WTF?!

And the worst part is that I have my first appointment with a new doctor in 10 days. I haven't had a regular GP in 20 years, instead counting on Doc in the Box to treat my various infirmities throughout the years. But I figured after I turned 40, I'd better get somebody who I could go to on a more regular basis. My new doctor came extremely well recommended by several other docs, (skinny fingers) so I was willing to wait the three months that it took to get a new patient appointment. Apparently, somebody has to die to make room in the schedule. I guess it's kinda like getting promoted from the kiddie table at Thanksgiving.

But your first appointment with a new doctor is like a first date with a woman. I don't want his first impression of me to be that I'm a broke-down stress cur that needs to be put on Xanax and Lipitor. I always brush my teeth three times and floss like a madman before I go to the dentist, and I used to always wash my hair (when I had some) before I'd go to get a haircut.

So I've got two weeks to destress, eat healthy and get my pressure down out of the stroke range.

Crap, crap, crap.