For with the heart man believes . . .

It was bound to happen sooner or later. For the first time in probably my entire life I scheduled a doctor's appointment of my own volition. I needed some prescriptions refilled and figured that since it had been almost 9 months since seeing the doctor, a checkup wouldn't be out of order. I mean, the guy has been kind enough to write my prescription refills, and from what they tell me, a "regular checkup" isn't all that bad, either.

So he asks me about what's been happening, how I've been feeling, and he says he'd like to get some baseline blood work done in order to make sure I stay healthy. "Oh," he says, "it looks like they forgot to take your blood pressure. I'll send someone in to look at that and I'll be back in a few minutes." So his wife, a nurse in his office, comes in; I roll up my short-sleeve just a bit as she slips the cuff over my arm. As the pain in the upper arm reaches its peak, I hear the slight hisssssssssssssss of the air being released.

Thump, thump, thump rings out from the tightness supplied by the sphygmomanometer (the big ol' word that means "blood pressure taker thing"), into the stethoscope and on to the ears of the qualified professional. After the thumping ceases, she says, "I need to get a larger cuff. This small cuff might be messing up the reading." After returning and repeating the aforementioned procedure, she says, "Same reading."

"A smidge on the high side?" I asked, glancing down at the sheet with all my information. "156/110. Same as I got a minute ago." Well, needless to say that is not a good blood pressure. Go on, just look it up. She says, "I'll be back in a minute." About 15 seconds later the doctor once again returns, this time with a look of urgency not seen earlier. Sitting down on the little spin-type doctor-y stool he begins asking me, "Have you been having headaches? Any shortness of breath? Chest pains or dizziness?" The answers to those questions were, "I have one now, but it's sinus-related. Asthma, because of the pollen explosion. No and no, and I even moved a refrigerator three days ago and no pain or dizziness or anything."

So the doctor goes and gets me some blood pressure medicine samples, and says that, quote, "We have to get that pressure down to minimize any residual organ damage." Well, that's good to hear. Since nearly everyone in my family has high blood pressure, I figured I would eventually find myself in the batter's box. Over the last week, I've been to the doctor's office three times for various tests, but the medicine seems to be working. The blood pressure has been much lower, in the excellent range, and if I can get used to the side effects (weird feeling episodes which aren't easy to predict and leave me a bit sluggish) things should be great.

As my regular readers know, I have been in the process of "de-ironing" my fire, to ensure that I am able to focus on God's primary tasks for me and that I might be my best for Him, even if it means I have to cut back. Now, with these particular health issues (and I'm trusting the other test results will come back with a good report) I guess it's the Lord's way of telling me to refocus. While I figured it would happen eventually, I guess in my heart I didn't really believe it would happen to me. Now I believe it, and now it's time to look after my health a little bit more closely.

Anyway, this week, as you may have already surmised (being "Easter Week,") the Soulscape schedule is a bit different. There will be no entry on Thursday, but on Good Friday I will post my preliminary CrossWalk thoughts. At 6:00 PM that evening a number of people from our church and community will be carrying a cross for 1.5 miles in remembrance of Christ's sacrifice for us, as well as a way to testify to our neighborhood. On Friday night or Saturday I will post my "post-game synopsis" of the event, then pick up next week with the regular schedule. Keep us in your prayers that we might reach the community for the Lord. See you soon!

P.S. HAPPY 4TH BIRTHDAY TO MY SON (YESTERDAY)!

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