Hospital Blood Pressure Readings/Automated Cuffs

I monitor my BP at home and my readings are never high. When I visit my doctor at the Texas Tech Internal Medicine building, my readings are always high. I've decided that the measurements taken with the automated cuffs are inaccurate. For one thing, the procedures in the typical hospital or clinic setting break all the rules. Your arm is hanging at your side, you are placed in an uncomfortable chair and typically you have just had your weight taken. I find that when you donate blood the rules ARE followed. Whenever I donate blood my BP is very good. Whenever I take my own BP at home using a wrist cuff, following the rules for use, my BP is never high. I just wonder how many people are diagnosed as hypertensive and medicated based on INACCURATE clinic and hospital pressure readings? A lot, I bet. There is a lot of money to be made, treating people for hypertension. I'm cynical enough to believe that the inaccurate readings in clinical settings are deliberate and are intended to increase revenue. But being labeled hypertensive can be the kiss of death as far as insurers are concerned. Once you are labeled hypertensive, you can never escape the stigma. God forbid you should be treated. I strongly urge people to learn to check their own blood pressure. If necessary bring your own cuff with you and check yourself before your BP is taken by the clinic/hospital staff. If your results are lower, dispute their readings. Don't let yourself be victimized by greedy health care providers. Hypertension is serious business. If you are truly hypertensive you need to be treated. But you can easily be misdiagnosed by nurses using sloppy procedures or deliberately labeled as hypertensive by greedy hospitals and doctors using poorly maintained or poorly calibrated automated cuffs. By the way, most doctors are incapable of taking your blood pressure using a cuff and stethoscope. Ask the nurse to NOT use the automated cuff. Have them take your blood pressure the old way, and insist on proper posture and arm position. Don't be a victim!

More From Littlefield, Again

And by the way, we will probably get more rain soon. GOOD!

 

More From Littlefield, Texas

Littlefield seemed a little strange to us because of the odd pockets of desperate poverty, the ramshackle houses scattered about, so near to neighborhoods of obvious affluence. In Lubbock we have a codes enforcement department and a health department, even though they aren't adequately funded. Littlefield seems to have nothing of the kind. Residential streets are not even paved, in some cases, within the city limits! Mosquitoes were a major problem. I doubt that they do any spraying. We got the impression that in Littlefield it is every man for himself. 

 

It Keeps On Raining!

The rain comes in just the right amounts and just the right intervals to keep things nice and green.  It is a very welcome change!

 A few weekends ago my wife and I visited Littlefield. We were not prepared for the dire poverty we found in some neighborhoods. Littlefield must not have building codes or any kind of condemnation procedures. We saw structures that were not much larger than chicken coops, surrounded by rank weeds, wrecked cars, and piles of garbage, with someone apparently trying to live in them. These extreme poverty zones were within a few blocks of very nice affluent neighborhoods. What a crazy mix! Downtown Littlefield is chock full of ruins, too. I didn't even scratch the surface. We didn't see many signs of OIL BOOM prosperity. Littlefield's civic leaders must be fans of Ayn Rand. So I'll begin a little Littlefield photo series. Some of the ruins I could not photograph because they were inhabited! 

 

Storm Clouds Over Wolfforth

The day before we took these pics, Wolfforth got clobbered by large hail and 90+ mph winds. Clouds were gathering for another round of storms. 

Note the football stadium. This is for a HIGH SCHOOL! Big deal in this area.