Posted on 05/28/2007 11:04:29 AM PDT by neverdem
Dr. Diana Fite, a 53-year-old emergency medicine specialist in Houston, knew her blood pressure readings had been dangerously high for five years. But she convinced herself that those measurements, about 200 over 120, did not reflect her actual blood pressure. Anyway, she was too young to take medication. She would worry about her blood pressure when she got older.
Then, at 9:30 the morning of June 7, Dr. Fite was driving, steering with her right hand, holding her cellphone in her left, when, for a split second, the right side of her body felt weak. “I said: ‘This is silly, it’s my imagination. I’ve been working too hard.’ ”
Suddenly, her car began to swerve.
“I realized I had no strength whatsoever in my right hand that was holding the wheel,” Dr. Fite said. “And my right foot was dead. I could not get it off the gas pedal.”
She dropped the cellphone, grabbed the steering wheel with her left hand, and steered the car into a parking lot. Then she used her left foot to pry her right foot off the accelerator. She pulled down the visor to look in the mirror. The right side of her face was paralyzed.
With great difficulty, Dr. Fite twisted her body and grasped her cellphone.
“I called 911, but nothing would come out of my mouth,” she said. Then she found that if she spoke very slowly, she could get out words. So, she recalled, “I said ‘stroke’ in this long, horrible voice.”
Dr. Fite is one of an estimated 700,000 Americans who had a stroke last year, but one of the very few who ended up at a hospital with the equipment and expertise to accurately diagnose and treat it.
Stroke is the third-leading cause of death in this country, behind...
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So now cellphones are causing strokes?
Seriously, if your blood pressure is consistently in the 200 over 120 range you might as well call the coroner and request they start filling out your death certificate.
Hight blood pressure - the silent killer.
There's a lot of denial among medical professionals. It's the "not me" way of thinking.
I have a coworker the knew his pressure was high and even would check it with my monitor and make jokes about it. He laughed about it for years...and then was in intensive care for two weeks and now does dialysis twice a week and will soon go on the list for a kidney transplant if he becomes eligible. He doesn’t laugh about his blood pressure anymore.
No, the clue here is Houston. Home of Sheila Jackson-Don’t-you-know-who-I-am-Lee.
This may be a little too much personal information but here it is. I have been dealing with very high blood pressure for about five years. Before that I had a low normal blood pressure.
At the end of last year I was in the local ER with a 200/100 blood pressure on three occasions.
By chance, a doctor at the VA who was treating me for an illness, too me off of a medication I had been on for ten years and put me on a mild tranqualizer. My BP went to 125/70. She said she saw that happen very often when a person was given a tranqualizer instead of further medication for blood pressure.
Just FYI.
. ....so a quick Dogpile finds she is mother of 8 (ages 12 - 28), daughter of a neurosurgeon who works 2 full-time jobs (76 hrs/wk) and is president of the Harris County Medical Society, director of a few area emergency medical services and lobbies for physicians issues....
She just didn't have time to even think about taking care of herself.
I’ve heard of that happening. I also know of someone that had severe back pain that went away with the same treatment. Very interesting indeed.
Here’s a related story. I had HBP for years and was convinced that I was just too nervous when I went to the doctor, that they were getting wrong readings.
Finally when it hit 180/110 and I started getting chest pain, I was put on medication. My headaches, diagnosed migraines that I had been struggling with for 5 years, disappeared. Like zip.
“A doctor in her field not knowing the dangers of high blood pressure? Or how to get an accurate read of her blood pressure?
There’s a lot of denial among medical professionals. It’s the “not me” way of thinking.”
Dr Fite is not that unusual. I know a lot of my colleagues that either ignore themselves or foolishly treat themselves.I also suffered a stroke at 49 while in my office treating patients. I was one of the very lucky 10% that could return back to practice.
He who treats himself has a fool for a physician.
Wouldn’t want a MD to treat me when she was in denial about her own problems.
Nothing is more dangerous than denial.
I wonder who is holding a gun to her head and forcing her to work two full-time jobs and do volunteer work as well. And who is raising her children while she's out conquering the world? Is it even slightly possible she could exist on the salary from one full-time job as a physician? I'm shaking my head in disbelief. The stroke might have been the best thing that ever happened to her if it forced her to slow down and appraise her life.
Reading this thread reminded me that I hadn’t taken my own hypertension meds today. Thanks.
A Doctor?
200 over 120?
She must have cheated her way through Med School.
I’m glad she won’t be doing surgery on any of my family.
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