The performance anxiety...

I has it, apparently.

Had my two-week checkup. Was so wanting - trying to WILL so hard to have a low bp reading in the nurse's office that my heart rate went up, and my bp read high. Not as high as it was at its worst, but higher than it had been.

(Heh. I make great claims of being like Fluttershy but really now I think I'm Twilight Sparkle through and through. That sounds like something that would happen to her*)

But, my doctor - and I think this is a mark that she's a decent doctor - looked at my Hello Kitty notebook full of readings, chuckled, and said, "We'll go by these. These are what I like to see."

So I'm sprung from direct medical scrutiny for the next three months, except, oh darn, I forgot to ask if her office could administer a TDap booster, which I'm due for. Well, maybe another time. (Because going in for an intramuscular jab? Will make my bp run high in anticipation).

I also found out that the KCl fake salt is okay for me, provided I "don't use it every meal." (I won't. I'll only use it on eggs, which are the one thing I've not been able to find an herb or spice that I like on). This med I'm on slightly increases my risk of hyperkalemia (something I had already known from my reading about it) so I need to watch potassium intake.

She did say, "I'm happy to see we've got it under control" as she walked me back up to the front desk, so I'm going to interpret that as things are well on track, even if I'm not back down to 120/60 like I was in my 30s or 110/50 like I was when I was even younger. (Yeah. Need to work some more on those perfectionist tendencies).

I also have to learn that blood pressure is something you cannot WILL lower. (Nor is heart rate, apparently, in my case. I've read of people who have "learned" how to consciously lower their heart rate but I can't do it, I don't know the trick or don't have that capacity, if it even exists.)


(*And don't think I've not speculated on a list of Terrible Pony Afflictions: Twi would have to be hypertensive. And Pinkie Pie - too much sugar, type II diabetes. Or maybe ADHD.. And Applejack would have some kind of RSI from bucking too many trees. And Rainbow Dash would either have concussions, or perhaps altitude sickness from flying too high. And Fluttershy, probably agoraphobia. And Rarity, I don't know about Rarity....maybe she'd swallow a pin (Something my mother always warned me would happen when I would hold pins between my lips while pinning. It seems plausible enough to me that I don't do it any more))

So yeah. Need to get back to that grading now. The article critiques are done (and they were mostly OK) but now I have to embark on this morning's exam.