Tuesday, June 11, 2013

This Dad Can't Be "Stupid" About His Amlodipine

By B. Gregory Sloan


When my lovely bride and I were in the portion of life in which we began raising young children, our three were not permitted to make use of the major "S" word. No sir, the big "S" word simply wasn't allowed. Our little ones weren't permitted to call each other or anybody else-"stupid." Sure, people might just think that there are a lot of egregious words that ought to be prohibited in a family unit ahead of that one, and there were, but "stupid" was certainly one that wasn't allowed.

So, that's one particular reason that I began thinking about that particular word in regards to my own lifestyle and discipline routines a a week or so ago. At the age of 54, there are a few doctor prescribed medicines that I take when I need them. Having said that, the very most important one, the drug that I am truly instructed to take each day, is the one in which I am the most inclined to overlook. The medication is called Amlodipine, which is quite commonly prescribed for hypertension(high blood pressure).

Here's the deal with me. My degree of hypertension is not incredibly high, or in the typical "dangerous zone," nevertheless, for the "Silent Killer' that we now understand hypertension to be, it's nothing short of "stupid" for me to fail to put an extremely high priority on swallowing that tiny pill to make certain that my blood pressure levels stay at a level of safety. Hypertension may be the cause of a lot of dreadful things, including stroke, heart attack, and much more. We simply can't play around with it.

So, exactly why am I more likely to neglect that medication than other medications? Well, it's because those high BP symptoms aren't normally crying out for attention. I have an aggravating disc problem in my lower back for which I have medicine, and when it acts up, it certainly will let me know about it. But, this is not necessarily so with my blood pressure. It's a sneaky rascal. With very many conditions, the symptoms are going to scream to you that it is the appropriate time for your meds. But no, my hypertension doesn't pull on my shirt sleeve and remind me.

So, duh ... stupid me. How hard would it be to put a reminder on my cell phone or something similar that I would do for many other important tasks? That way I will likely not fail to remember that extremely important medication. It just isn't that difficult! But, it's really important.

So, okay, I still hope that my kids do not call each other stupid. However, this is certainly one instance in which I think their dad has pretty well fallen into that classification occasionally. High blood pressure is dangerous. Let's follow our physicians' directions and do the deal. Let's save our lives.




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