2pm in El Paso
I’m dying. Not really, but kind of. How soon? Who knows. It’ll be sooner than later. I hadn’t had a check up in years. I never get sick so why would I? Well I’m older now and something told me make an appointment. So I did.
I had a little window of opportunity to bounce from work. They finally put The Water Dance by DJ Flexxx on Apple Music so my shoulders were doing their thing on the way to the doctor’s office. I checked in and as I was filling out the paperwork, I got called in. That’s never happened! I’m usually in the waiting room for an hour, then called into the smaller waiting room where I would usually wait for an hour, until finally getting called into the room to get seen by the doctor, an hour later. The nurse took my height and weight as I completed the forms. She then took me into a room and sat me down. She asked me to lift up my sleeve to take my blood pressure.
“Are you feeling okay?”
“Yes ma’am. Why do you ask?”
“It’s high. Like really high. I’m going to come back in 5 minutes to do it again.”
She left and came back. My thoughts were a little wonky at that point.
“Okay, let’s try it again.”
“Better?”
“A little but it’s still high. Have you been stressed, getting headaches, blurry vision?”
“Nope. I feel like I always feel.”
“The doctor will see you shortly.”
Well damn. That’s not what I was expecting. I was just telling all of you how free I’ve been since my mother lifted my overthinking away as she joined the angels. The kids have grown up and are out of the house now. My diet isn’t the greatest but it isn’t terrible either. I work out…sometimes. This new job and position have been daunting, but I thought I was handling it all relatively well.
The doctor asked me to purchase my own blood pressure monitor and log the readings every day for the next two weeks. They drew six viles of blood for the battery of tests they were going to run. Man…
The ride back to work had a different feel. No Water Dance. 070 Shake conducted the tunes. The shoulders were still.
Moms had high blood pressure. She had two big strokes, the second one took her. After the first one, her doctor told us that her brain scan showed that she had hundreds of mini strokes over the years which she thought were just headaches. Moms was a tough, tough lady.
And now here I am. I guess I have to make some changes. I’m not scared to die. I still have a full head of hair, more grays than before but still full. My life insurance will set Asia and Miles up comfortably. I’ve done most of the things. Want to spend some more time with my kids, visit Iceland with Miles, watch my grandson play, dance with my nieces, cook up for my boys a few more times, do a dj set one night. Nova and Bo need me. I still have work to do too. I haven’t hit my stride yet as a head coach. I’ve got some fire shit in the tuck. Just wait.
Changes…getting old is a mean maiden. Something told me to get checked. Maybe it was Moms. Always looking out. I have things to do. I’ll make time.
