Recently, I was viewing a website (and I’m frustratingly unable to provide you a link here, perhaps someone has seen this and can help me out?) where children were interviewed by an adult off camera. As anyone who knows who Art Linkletter was, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Linkletter for those of you who are lost) kids say the darnedest things! Anyone who is a parent with a talking child is nodding right now, I’m sure. The interviewer was asking the children questions such as “how old are you when you’re old?” or “what happens to you when you are old?”. The definition of “old” varied widely, and was predictably relative to the age of the child being interviewed. Just as “upstream” and “downstream” are relative terms, apparently “old” is based upon your own age.
Unfortunately, “old” really doesn’t wait for you to agree with it that you are “old”; it has its own ideas about when to sneak up on you. Personally, I’m in my early forties. After years of construction work, commuting, crawling under houses and in attics as well as a few car accidents I don’t feel so far removed from “old”. I realize that early forties isn’told; it just feels that way to me. Not being “old” yet, I never thought I would find any value in having a GrandCare System for me. My parents could use one, of course- they’re old.
Because I work for a GrandCare Dealer, I was recently setting up a blood pressure cuff and connecting it to a system. Being a professional, I tested it to make sure that the GrandCare System recorded the measurement. Unfortunately, I noticed that my blood pressure was a bit high. Equally unfortunately, a second test (and a third) did not do anything to improve the measurement. I dismissed the high measurement much in the same way I had dismissed my “marginally high” blood pressure when I visited my doctor several months ago- stress, movement prior to the measurement, and the sun being in my eyes. Day after day, the same unfortunate events would skew my blood pressure in a similar way. Since I had taken the readings over several days using a demonstration GrandCare System in the office, I was able to chart my stress and how often the sun had indeed been in my eyes.
I called my doctor’s office to make an appointment; guess what the nurse told me to do? She directed me to take my blood pressure daily and record those measurements so I could show them to the doctor when I saw him! She told me to write them down in a notebook or something. I bet if I did I would either lose the notebook or stress about remembering it the day I went to the doctor, driving my blood pressure up even further and giving the doctor the distinct impression that I must be old.
Early forties, and already I’m using a GrandCare System for myself? I suppose that should very well dispel the myth that you need to be oldto use a GrandCare System, shouldn’t it? I feel fine (as my doctor said, not in bad shape for someone my age- whatever that means!), but if I hadn’t been working with a GrandCare System I wouldn’t have given my blood pressure a second thought until my next doctor visit. Maybe I might have gotten away with it, but there are still a few people who would read my obituary and shake their heads muttering something about dying young.
Fortunately, my doctor is still older than I am. While I’m on the subject of my doctor, I won’t mention his name here but I will note that he is a doctor at the Veteran’s Administration and I couldn’t be happier with him. I’m sure there are others who are treated poorly at the V.A., but my personal experience has never been anything other than being treated promptly with courtesy, respect and gratitude for my service. This is true of every single person I have dealt with at V.A. facilities, from a janitor I ask for directions in the hospital to the people who answer the phone.
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