Harry - Interview 07  

Harry - Interview 07

Age at Interview: 83
Sex: Male
Background: Harry is a retired post office worker, widowed with 1 adult daughter. Ethnic background/nationality: White English.

Brief outline:Harry took part in a trial of medication for high blood pressure. He had some side effects early on, but otherwise has been very happy with his care and how well he feels.

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Harry had regular monitoring tests. Most staff were excellent, but one nurse started a debate with him and made him cross. That didn’t seem a good way to get an accurate blood pressure reading.

 



And I would say to anybody that gets into these big, gets into these big things, “Over a long period, don’t be discouraged if it goes a little - give them time to sort it out.” And they do, they do sort it out. The, actually I was right the way through, when you go up there, you present yourself at the desk and you tell them your name and they sit down, and you sit down there quietly for ten minutes or so. And the nurse comes up and she goes like that [raises hand], and that’s a signal to come with her. So you go with her. And you take your coat off, she never says anything, roll your sleeve up and you’ll sit there for a few minutes, then she’ll take your blood pressure. Right? So what she’s done, she’s created a tranquil environment from which to find out what your blood pressure is at that particular time. And they always come out 130, 134, which is ideal from their point of view. But one time I went up there, there was, I think she was, she was very pleased with herself, a sister who’s qualified, looked like she’s just qualified. And I went and sat down and she started an argument about women’s lib. So she said to me - what did she? Oh, “Women can do what men can do.” I says, “What you talking about?” “Well, they can change your boyfriend or whatever.” It’s not the kind of argument I like. And she went on and on and on and on. And then she took me blood pressure and it was 150, you see [laughs]. So that’s the sort of thing, it’s one of the essentials. Blood pressure’s a very uneven thing. It responds to all kinds of mood changes, noises, somebody’s voice, everything, every, all of those sort of things. So that what you’re doing is you’re looking for to create a tranquil environment in order to test the blood pressure under those circumstances. And that forms the basis of your evaluation, you see. And another time they said to me - oh, I’d been going there - “Would you, have you, do the Edinburgh step test?” So I said, “Well, I’m not into Scottish dancing. What you talking about?” They said, well, what they do is they take your blood pressure and then with the thing on walk you up and down a step, walk you up and down steps. And what happens it causes your blood pressure to go up. And then you stop. And then they see how long it takes to go back to normal, which I think was a very sensible thing. And it went back to normal, as soon as I stopped breathing heavily it went back to normal. So I thought, “Well, in that respect the medication must be working.” Right? Because a doctor can’t prescribe for every mood you have, he just can’t do it. It’s impossible. He’ll go for the average and give you that test, and that test will show you how long. They deliberately put your blood pressure up and then they stop and it comes right down to normal. So from that respect it would seem to be a success. 

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