What to say?

I feel like my blog is SOOO BORING RIGHT NOW! Especially because all these other people are doing so many exciting things like going to the Wine Jar in SF or visiting Seattle or doing a FOODIE TOUR in SF or maybe visiting gorgeous Santa Barbara...

...and I'm...well, I am heading into a fun-packed weekend myself, now that I think about it.

- Girls on the Run 5K tomorrow morning and carpooling with Holly, yay!

- Pre-Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow afternoon/evening with friends in Oakland, yay!

- LAST XC RACE OF THE SEASON on Sunday morning, boo!!

- Birthday party out at Stinson Beach (inside a house...not on the beach, thank goodness, TOO COLD) Sunday afternoon, woo!
Stinson Beach on a nice day...

But I'm also just a little bummed right now. I really try to keep this blog about my activities in tri-land/bike-land/etc but I can't help but write about this because I am SO FRUSTRATED!

I went to the doc yesterday. Just wanted to get established with my new doc, and figured it's been about 2 years since I got labs done and since my family has this lovely history of great things like high BP, heart stuff, high cholesterol...well, these are things I need to stay on top of because in spite of my great exercise and healthy eating habits, genetics are what they are. And while I'm grateful that cancer doesn't run in my family, this other stuff does.

So the medical assistant takes my BP...I look away because I'm praying it will magically be the right numbers.

Pause.

"Do you have high blood pressure?"

Gulp. "Um, well...a couple years ago when I was on cold meds we realized I had insanely high BP and monitored afterward but then it came back down to normal and it's been pretty stable since, so um...not really. I stay away from cold meds now."

So she said the doc would check again. Okay.

Go through my family history, what my concerns are (basically I just want to stay healthy and stay on top of my cholesterol and BP but I live a pretty darn healthy lifestyle and never had any health issues, so...that's ALL, DOC!), etc.

Then we get to the blood pressure thing. He checks it again. Ugh, STILL high. Basically was around 140/90 which is right at the Hypertension/High Blood Pressure line. Here's a chart in case you were interested.

In the past few months that I'd checked occasionally, I was in the 130/80 range, so still not the BEST, but not high either.

We discussed all the possible reasons, genetics being the probable main cause, but he's going to have my labs done so we can look at everything else that's going on with me. Then we talked about the dangers of having a borderline high blood pressure, which I basically knew. It's awful because it's living at that borderline for years and years that can really do the major damage and cause heart disease.

So the one cool thing about this guy was that he was very thoughtful in considering how we'll go forward. I've got a pump at home, so I'm going to monitor it a couple times a day for the next few weeks. And get my labs done. We'll meet up again in a couple weeks to see if we can determine the cause. Whether we can or not, the most important thing is to determine how to move forward. He said as an athlete, if I did end up going on meds, I wouldn't be a candidate for the most common ones due to the side effects they have - aka slowing you down.

I really appreciated that.

And I know I'm making this sound like such a big deal. But for someone who has never had any health problems in her life, IT IS!!! I hate that I work so hard to live such in such a healthful way and yet I'm looking at possibly going on meds for high blood pressure. Yes, it's common in the US but to me that doesn't mean it's okay. And I hate the thought of being on meds to control something, even if it's through no fault of my own. I still somehow feel guilty.

So all of a sudden this morning I started examining things...looking at salt content, wondering if I eat salty foods without realizing it? But so far, nothing crazy yet. Took my BP this morning, still 140/90. Ugh.

Anyway, on with the day, on with the adventure! Hope everybody has a great weekend.

AND, to all those doing IM Arizona, BEST OF LUCK TO YOU!!!!!!