The weather outside is lovely! Today the temperature is supposed to rise to 27C and feel like 32C. I am sitting in the living room writing this, with all the windows in the house open. The curtains rise and fall gently in the breeze. The scent of blossoms fills the air. The birds are singing the praises of the day.
This is the cusp of the day, 9:30 a.m. The temperature outside is just below the temperature inside the house. In a short time that will reverse, and the breezes slowing through the house will begin to warm the interior. Then it will be time to shut all the windows, and draw all the curtains against the sun. After I do that it will be time to sit out on the porch and enjoy my breakfast.
Attila has been picking rhubarb in the garden. Earlier in the week I baked rhubarb squares for his lunches. He has picked more since. The plan was to make strawberry rhubarb jam today, but with the high temperature predicted that plan was postponed for milder weather. In the meantime, since more rhubarb will be coming in from the garden soon, the harvested rhubarb will be washed, diced, and frozen. I think I will try to dehydrate some as well, and if that works it will be preferable because it won’t take up freezer space.
We love our pizza nights. But in the summer we avoid using the oven as much as possible, so our indulged meal will become our homemade sausage patties on a bun, with a side of home canned coleslaw. We both love the homemade sausage patties, and they have become our red meat of choice.
The robin is calling me, the temperature is rising, time to close the windows, and step outside for a sit on the porch!
<health rant>
White Coat Syndrome
“White coat hypertension occurs when the blood pressure readings at your doctor’s office are higher than they are in other settings, such as your home. It’s called white coat hypertension because the health care professionals who measure your blood pressure sometimes wear white coats.”
I was diagnosed with white coat syndrome a long time ago. It comes from the frustrations I’ve faced over my anaphylaxis (survived for 40 years), which means that any careless act on the part of a medical person could result in a quick and painful death. And they make mistakes all the time. I have awakened from surgery to find they can’t figure out what pain medications they can give me, so I had none, and that was a traumatic experience. I was in hospital for three days having blood transfusions at one point, and they kept sending me food with my allergen in it, or unknown which is just as bad; Attila brought me food so I would not go hungry. I have sat in a dentist’s chair and been informed that I had just been injected with a substance that might contain my allergen. Sitting there wondering if I am about to die, watching the fearful faces of the staff, well who would not be traumatized by that. There have been dozens of times where health care people were going to give me food, pills, injections, and I had to stop them and find out if my allergen was contained in them; at least a dozen times it was. And almost worst of all, health care people frequently annoyed, and treat me as if I am a complainer, an attention seeker, a troublemaker, a pain in the behind. I do what I have to do to stay alive, no apologies. So, my anxiety about the medical people is not only justified, it is essential to preserve my own life. I wear a medic alert, but only once in over 40 years has a medical person actually looked for it, only once.
This leads me to thinking about my blood pressure, which is always high when I have medical appointments or procedures. Right now it is often high. They are always suggesting increasing the quantity and/or number of medications, changing my lifestyle, useless stuff considering their measurements are based on a symptom that causes temporary high blood pressure, and that I’ve tried all that to no avail. I’ve made all the lifestyle changes that can be made, and they have been beneficial, but the while coat syndrome remains.
I have a plan! I am going to start taking my own blood pressure every day. Taken five consecutive times, the first time it is always high, then progressively lowers. My thinking is that if I take it every day it will become a routine thing, and eventually the automatic stress associated with it will diminish. This would probably take months to internalize, so I will give it a good go to see if it helps.
</health rant>
Worldly
Weather
Updated on Fri, May 13, 9:25 AM
21 °C
FEELS LIKE 22
Partly cloudy
Wind 16 S km/h
Humidity 58 %
Visibility 30 km
Sunrise 5:43 AM
Wind gust 23 km/h
Pressure 102.2 kPa
Ceiling 9100 m
Sunset 8:25 PM
Quote
“We are continually faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.””
John W. Gardner
1912 – 2002