Back from Phoenix

Eliot doesn't handle stress well. So his blood pressure was out of sight when the Nurse Practioner took it. He didn't want me to go in with him for the examination. He said that led to his stress. But he doesn't pay attention to details that I (as someone who has had some experience as an LPN) might think is important. And what he does remember he doesn't tell me. As his caregiver, I want to know all I can. So here it's 2:30 already and we still have to go to the lab and get the chest xray and finally make it over to Golden Corral 8 minutes before the early bird special ends (at 4pm). He says McCrystal eats only one meal a day. Like what has that got to do with the price of eggs in China or the fact that he is so stressed out because he hasn't eaten all day. By the time we get to Walmart to get his new Rx (an increase in Bisopr/Hctz to 10/6.25 from 5/6.25) he was mellow and the blood pressure machine there showed satisfactory results for his blood pressure. I took mine which seemed to be a little low. The Walmart blood pressure machines are not always accurate. So when we finally made it back to Prescott Valley I took out our blood pressure machine. The results were a little higher but Eliot was satisfied that it was stress that gave him the high reading. But they won't do the surgery if his blood pressure is off the charts. Anyhow we go see the cardiologist tomorrow and he will probably order a stress test. His EKG by the way was fine, that is no different from his past EKGs which just shows his earlier heart attack from 15 years ago.

I know stress reduction exercises but Eliot won't let me do any of this "new age" stuff on him. I tell him that there are scientific results that the relaxation response lowers blood pressure. He says all he needs to do to reduce stress is to go hiking so today we're going to go hiking at Lynx Lake.