Posted on by Cathy

Ups and Downs…..

A little trip to the doctor a few months ago had me thinking
about the ups and downs in life
‘Alternating periods of good and bad’

It seems to me that for every up side I have
theres always a down side 

I love to travel 
and living in Australia the easiest way 
for us to get to any other country is to fly
There is just one thing – I don’t like flying
So the less of the ups and downs 
(taking off and landing – stops for refueling etc) 
I have when traveling the better
When we arrange our itineraries we have to choose routes  
that have as many direct flights as we can get
I have to get there as quickly as I can 

Weight loss for me has caused many ups and downs
First of all, having the GP mention a figure to aim for 
sent me spiralling down
Even tho’ I was healthy and fit
it  didn’t mean a thing as far as he was concerned
So down it had to come

Same with the blood pressure.
Too high – way up in the air he waved his hands
needs to come down
This is the figure

I’m sure the figures he’s used over the years masquerade as a yo yo
I can’t count the times they’ve gone down 
and then the times they’ve gone way back up again
There’s been plans made lots of effort put in
But like travelling I need a direct route.
when I don’t get there quickly enough
I am down again
(mentally emotionally that is) 

So I‘ve had to pick myself up and work at it again
It’s been hard – lots of excuses made
I wanted it to happen ‘just like that’.
But the figures didn’t come down ‘just like that’.
They stayed up and I felt very down

My exercise routine and the better healthy lifestyle is working now 
theres not been so many emotional downs recently 
A recent trip to the doctor told me
Thankfully one set of figures has come down
the upper and lower figures are fine
Unfortunately the other figure I had to work on has not come down
as much as wanted

I’m not bemoaning the fact I don’t like something
like recording the facts and figures of food and exercise as suggested
just trying to do it the way I enjoy doing it
So there’s a lot less up and a bit more down.

Joining Corinne and others for Monday Musings

25 Replies to “Ups and Downs…..”

  2. I’ve had to record my blood pressure and weight every day for going on 3 months now. Like you, I want those numbers dow NOW… but I must work at it, day by day. I have congestive heart failure, so exercise must be administered with caution. So far, walking on our treadmill has been the easiest to do and accept. Good luck with your numbers!!

    Liked by 1 person

    1. New medication and more exercise has lowered the bp….it’s the excess baggage that’s the problem. For some reason I’m finding it difficult to record the food diary the way they want it. Snacks I can understand but each recipe recorded all ingredients recorded portion size. Rather than provide an actual food chart/suggested food stuffs/diet plan which would (as far as I’m concerned) be much easier.

      Liked by 1 person

      1. Yeah, I’ve been bad about exercising. :/ Need to do it — I hate it, but when I can read my Kindle and walk at the same time, I can do 15 min. Not great, but better than nothing.

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  4. When my heart was erratic, I had to take BP multiple times a day. Recording everything helped me understand and we solved the problem. A record of an achievement is a good thing.

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  5. Mother had always had an abnormally high blood pressure…in her eightiess her GP prescribed pills to bring it down with the result that on a visit to us in France she collapsed. BP too low.
    Our super G.P. there – a Basque – sorted her out with rehydration, told her to sleep with her feet higher than her head and asked her to check her BP three times a day for a fortnight.
    It was always high, she felt great again, and, seeing the results, he told her to throw her pills in the bin…her BP was normal for her.
    She lived for another twenty years…terrifying her GP and his nurses every time she went to the surgery.

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    1. Loved this little tale of your mother and how her medicos dealt with her blood pressure. Sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know to fix the problem.
      She certainly lived to a good age with many a tale to tell I bet.

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    1. I’ve done it before EC…..just not sure why I’m not doing so well this time.
      I’ll leave off half the ‘do we really need this’ bits from the shopping list and see how we go from there.

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    1. You’re right Cathy…..Quality Street is far preferable to any old brand of chocolates😊
      Seriously though, those excess kilos really do have to go this time. Better weather should mean I’ll be wandering out and about more….if the legs cooperate. Once they lift the 5km boundary I’ll try some new/different walks….seeing something different might make a difference. Although putting less in the mouth might make difference as well!

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  8. We should all be expert surfers. Constantly we’re riding waves.

    Rarely do I visit doctors, but I had to pay a visit last week to get a medical clearance to enable me to renew my driver’s licence.. (I’ve now reached the age I have to do this annually…dammit!). And, I passed the medical test. I think they just wanted to get rid of me as quickly as possible! 🙂

    I don’t know if others become a little “flustered” inside when at a doctor’s surgery, but I do. You’re being pulled from pillar to post, as it were…do this…do that. To make matters worse I had to wear a mask…for the first time…even though I said my face was a permanent mask….that I hire myself out for Halloween!

    The mask was uncomfortable…I started feeling claustrophobic; breathing wasn’t as easy as it normally is without a mask impeding things. If there had been a bank nearby, while waiting for my appointment, I would have gone in and held it up. Alas! There are no banks anywhere up here on the hill!

    The nurses, and the doctor, were very pleasant…and we cracked lots of jokes back and forth as I was doing the eye test. Why do they have the charts a mile away! I passed. Lucky guesses with the bottom lines, I think!!.

    But when it came time for the nurse to take my blood pressure…I’m sitting out in the hallway. I had two long-sleeved tops on….trying to get my arm out of the sleeves to enable the “strip” to go around my upper arm was a battle….Plus, as I said…I was in a hallway…within the view of other visitors to the surgery.

    I’m, imagining myself sitting there…bra, and breasts partly exposed…doing an unexpected, unprepared strip-tease!

    Finally the nurse said she could do the test with me leaving one top on! Whew! By that stage I was sweating, even though it was a cool morning!

    Of course, the result of my blood pressure test was higher than it should have been! D’oh!

    I pointed out to the nurse…laughingly…surely that would have been expected with all the rigamarole I went through to get the test done! She agreed! 🙂

    I’m always up and down. Being a regular guest the latter place is why I always have a supply of miner’s lamps at hand! 🙂

    You’re not whingeing, Cathy…but if you feel you are…you are allowed! You should hear me!! On second thoughts…it’s probably better you don’t!! 🙂

    Take good care. (My apologies for turning my response into a novella!)

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    1. Oh Lee what an awful (and embarrassing) experience. Was it because of you know what’ you were treated in the corridor….yes or no it isn’t exactly professional to encourage you to undress in semi public. I always try to wear something easily removed if I know the cuff is going to make an appearance because I don’t think, we’ll I know from previous experience) the reading on the flesh with nothing hindering it is different to that on top of a sleeve…no matter how thin.
      I’ve had a long talk with myself – up is the only way to go. In mood and spirit. Down is where the weigh in numbers will be going. BP needs to stay where it is!
      And you take care also….in that lovely place in Qld.

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  9. Hi Cathy, thank you for a lovely post! I agree that the ups and downs are tough although I realised some time ago that I can accept that they are part of life and to stop fighting the downs. It definitely helped even if some days are easier than others. Thanks again for sharing #MondayMusings

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    1. Trouble is Anne down is not where I want to be – weight yes, bp yes but emotionally no. The better weather is here now which will make a big difference, nothing like fresh air and sunshine to cheer me up.

      If you read this, can I just say I tried to leave a comment on your post but was blocked – said I was a bot! Will try your email.

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  10. Cathy, life is up and down, how boring would it be if we only had flat as far as the eye could see? Just before reading your post, I got an email from my nephew’s wife, expecting their first baby (which will be the first of the next generation in our family). I’m sure she won’t mind me putting her words in here:
    “I’m basically ready and prepared so every day is a little gift of time to myself and a chance to have unstructured days with no demands on my time. I’m trying to focus on mental/emotional work now, centering around surrendering and progressive relaxation and choosing positive narratives rather than negative, etc. I think our brains get in the way of smooth labor more than anything else. And I’m enjoying the last of the good weather and this golden little window of time and letting go of control.” (They live in rural BC, Canada.)
    I hope for her sake she’s right about the labour, but more than that it is a sort of recipe for life generally. I started some on-line yoga recently (Yoga with Adrienne) and she tends to spread a fairly similar message. Her yoga isn’t about striving to be a pretzel, its about being the best version of yourself.
    So just work on being the best version of yourself, not a model of someone else.

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  11. Oh dear! Visits to the doctors can be a nightmare. Last year my sugars shot up and I was told I was diabetic and put on two tablets a day! The doctor also told me that I’d be on them for life! But I was determined that was not going to happen – brisk walks, cutting down on sweets and sweet drinks, adding more raw veggies to my diet and most of all, realigning my thoughts so as not to stress. Totally off the meds and my sugars are normal. I haven’t had the chance to go tell my doctor how wrong he was, because I really don’t want to visit the hospital if I can help it during these times.
    I hope you can get your BP to stabilize too.

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  12. I’m really nervous about flying too. We’re sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. I know how you’re feeling as I’m struggling with keeping my glucose lower.

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  14. I didn’t reply on that day because I was working out a plan to bamboozle the doctor to lower my BP medication – of course I had a fairly good plan – which had involved talking to the chemist on the blower and she had advised me to seek a review. I had added that to the original email/appt request.

    Plus when I had the appt via reception phone call, I mentioned “tell her I’ve stopped the medication” … so when I finally went, GP has assumed the BP would be very high! It wasn’t…So I got my reduction and something else to fix a sideline issue.

    I was on a real downer for a couple of weeks with my internal issues to a point where it had begun to affect my daily walks…

    Now slowly returning to the upper part of a downer – back to walking…which now is terribly VIP as I have front up to her in a month for a recheck

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