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Male Over 60

Interview 20

Interview 20

Age at Interview: 72
Sex: Male
Age at Diagnosis: 68
Background:

Brief outline:Discovered after angioplasty.

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Considers the relative contributions of smoking and stress towards hypertension.
Print I'm 73 now and I probably was smoking for 60 years, and for the last 40 years I was smoking 40 cigarettes a day. It was a habit more than wanting them. I'd do a book fair and I'd find myself with a cigarette in my hand and one in the ashtray. Prior to that I was a driving examiner which involved a lot of stress. I was illegitimate according to everybody who failed their test; and you got abused, you got threatened - you were uptight. There were times, and every examiner will tell you the same, when you'd literally walk in the office and just beat your head against a wall. If you've had a terrible drive which you've had to abandon and then walk back you are like this and you've have to cancel the next test - you couldn't go out because you couldn't give a fair decision to that person. So I think that was probably one of the causes of it, and stress. I think if I had to really think about it I'd say stress is the biggest cause of high blood pressure.

Explains that his condition was discovered after a mild heart attack.
Print I was doing a book fair and I had what I thought was indigestion. I got somebody to go out and get me some indigestion tablets, but they had no effect whatsoever. I went along to see a doctor next morning and he said 'From the symptoms I think you've had a heart attack. I want you to go out to the hospital and have an ECG, a blood test and an xray'. The results come back and nothing. He said 'I'm not satisfied I'd like you to go to another hospital'. I went there, saw the cardiologist, he asked various questions and he said 'May we do an angiogram?' which they did. I went into hospital, they did the angiogram and he said 'You've got one blocked artery, you can either stay on tablets or have an angioplasty'. I had the angioplasty. That covered 2 days roughly, I came out and had to go back about once a month to see the cardiologist. That was when they realised the blood pressure was extremely high; it was running up around 190 over about 100. They tried various tablets and things, they couldn't get it down, couldn't find any reason so they asked me to go and see one of the professors there. He sorted out tablets for me and I'm fine. I can do 90% of what I'd done before except that I get extremely short of breath, but again that could have been from 40 years of smoking and that was smoking 40 cigarettes a day. But on reflection, thinking back 20 years, there's a couple of occasions when I was in restaurants, had a good meal, it was hot and I fainted. Thinking about it that could be high blood pressure, I don't know.

Comments how difficult it is to know the causes of blood pressure but he tries not to get stressed.
Print I don't think anybody can turn round and say 'This is a definite thing that causes blood pressure'. I don't think you can, there are just many, many things that contribute to it. High blood pressure again is a part of getting old - a person of 70 is going to have a higher blood pressure than a young man of 20, it's only natural. And if you're running at an acceptable 170 odd at 70 and a little bit of stress upsets you, it's going to rise up to the point where the doctors say 'We're going to have to have a look'. I think the main thing is don't get stressed out, if you're not stressed out your blood pressure is not going to do too high. I believe if I worry I'm going to die. Worry is going to cause me stress, stress is going to cause me to have a heart attack or something like that. I don't believe in worrying. I'd probably think to myself that one day I'm suddenly going to wake up and I'm not there. If I go in my sleep what a nice way to go. What would worry me and it would tear me to pieces is my wife died of cancer and I saw her for month after month after month go down to about 3 or 4 stone.

Describes his routine which prevents him from forgetting to take his tablets.
Print I take these tablets regularly. I have 3 every morning. What I tend to do is each night when I go to bed, I take a glass of milk with me. In the morning the first thing I do is I put the kettle on, I sit down, I drink the milk, I've got to take my tablets as they're there. Night time I have a cholesterol tablet which I take when I clean my teeth, again no problem, can't forget it.

Describes the discrepancies when his blood pressure is monitored depending on the conditions.
Print I read a little article - and I'm not going against doctors - that a lot of doctors are only shown-I'll rephrase that- a lot of nurses are only shown how to operate a blood pressure machine at the start of their career and never have any training after. Now one thing my one doctor does is he uses what he calls a wide band. Down at the surgery they use a normal one and there's a difference in the blood pressure. Also he does it while I'm laying down and standing up so we get two readings. When my usual doctor takes it, she says 'Oh it's a bit high this time,' - she's using a narrow band one. And another thing, she takes it almost as soon as you come in whereas he wanders off for a few minutes; you've got time to lay down, relax and get settled. I tend to get slightly higher readings at my doctors. One reason was - I'm not being rude- the previous doctor used to have a terrifically short skirt, I had white coat syndrome, the blood pressure went up! Another thing I read, is that most people going to a doctors are nervous - it's like going to the dentists, naturally your blood pressure is going to go up. But, I find it's all fine now.

Describes the adverse side effects from his earlier treatments.
Print The first lot of tablets he gave me first of all made my left leg paralysed - literally - it was completely in pain. The second lots of tablets he gave me dried the throat completely, I could almost not breathe. And the third lot we tried, they seemed to work quite satisfactory.

Explains he eats what he enjoys but does avoid fried foods.
Print I used to have a fried breakfast every morning but I rarely ever have one now. I'm more likely to have something like scrambled eggs or a couple of times a week haddock, but that's probably the only bit. I don't eat a lot of fried stuff, more usually baked potatoes, and I have a roast dinner occasionally. I'll eat what I enjoy eating.

Explains that he has no problems picking up repeat prescriptions as the professionals involved are so nice.
Print I go to the doctors at the surgery, I get a month's prescription at a time; I'm due down there Monday to drop the prescription in and then I just pick it up from the local chemist. I go to the doctors on the Monday, drop it in their box, pick it up from the pharmacist on a Wednesday. I like all the girls down at the reception there and we always have a little old chat about this, that and the other and we get on fine. Every 5 weeks I have to see the doctor, my favourite doctor has gone back to Derbyshire but I've got another doctor who's good as gold. What I do like about these doctors is they treat you as human beings. If there's something you want to ask or say, they listen to you. If I think back to years ago when shall we say the doctors were like gods, ordering 'do this'. But they're wonderful down there, we're on first names terms with most of them and it's nice. You can relax there and I think it takes a lot of the pressure away from you when they're like that. In the ward where we went one of the nice things was when you go in they say 'How would like to be known?' First name, second name, anything you like which is nice.

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