I apologize to my good friends if I suddenly dropped off the face of earth. I didn’t mean to. I went missing-in-action to get myself checked out by an internist. Almost daily this week, I went to St. Luke’s Medical Center to consult with my cardiologist and have a battery of tests done. The last one, an exercise electrocardiogram (aka stress test) was done this morning, after a series of blood tests.

What started this? Last weekend, in what was supposed to be a quiet Holy Week four-day weekend, I started experiencing chest pains. Some were triggered by exercise (such as running after Alphonse), and still some more others came when I was at rest. Sunday night was worst, when I woke up at dawn to the feeling of having my chest crushed by a vise. A wanted to bring me to the ER but I prevailed over him to wait and observe, it being very early in the morning and Alphonse would be left home without responsible adult care. I’ve been weaseling out of my check-ups these last few months, but Sunday night scared me to submission. I promised A to have myself checked out and I did. The results will come out tomorrow, but I have a fairly good idea what the management would be, despite diagnosis.

I’ve never been hypertensive in my life, except perhaps in pregnancy, but these last few days, my blood pressure has been quite erratic. When the doctor took my blood pressure in her office, it was surprisingly high, and since then, she has asked me to keep a daily log of vital signs for my next check-up. I do have a strong family history of hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, so I will have to be on the lookout for emerging signs and symptoms indicative of these illnesses. I would rather not be put on any medication yet so I will have to rethink and change my lifestyle to avert potential health consequences.

Beyond medication, I know that the most important goal would be controlling my weight. I lost almost fifty pounds in 2004 and kept it off for close to two years, but with Alphonse’s regression in 2007, I fell into depression and ate my way back to mental health. I don’t recommend this to anyone, but it certainly felt good while I was doing it.

This is my next challenge in my coming birthday year: to get myself ready to live up to a hundred.