... you get a home blood pressure monitor/unit for your birthday, and you're happy about it!

I sat in the hospital for two days while the tried to figure out why I had all these blackout/fainting spells. 2 chest X-rays, 2 CAT scans, 2 EKGs, 1 EEG, a neck ultrasound, a heart ultrasound, 2 MRAs and tons of blood tests later, they let me go, puzzled and defeated. They don't know what's wrong with me.

The one thing they kept checking but didn't seem to take into account was my blood pressure. It was sky high. Triple digits on both. I think it's a tenet of medical faith that all fat people have high blood pressure, so they probably assumed I was lying when I said my normal bp is 120/70. Which it is, until my trip to the ER with fainting spells. They were also shocked (I might almost go so far as to say offended) that my heart was perfectly healthy in every test they gave it. Another tenet of their faith - fat people have bad hearts, and are diabetic. I'm nowhere near either.

So anyway, my folks bought me a bp machine. Now I can keep track of it and take that info to my doc and see what she thinks of it.

I gave one to my sister for her b-day, but didn't seem to get any appreciation for it... The year before, we gave her a blood sugar monitor which she said she could've gotten from Walgreen's for free if she really wanted one. Some people are hard to help, I guess.