When did you last have your blood pressure taken? A year ago? 3 years? You can't remember?
I couldn't remember exactly either. Maybe 7 years ago? It's not something I thought about much because the last time it was taken they said it was practically ideal. And then this happened...
A couple of weeks back I had a job on the go, the client was particularly difficult. Lots of delays, long days and late nights, deadlines changed after the fact without anyone bothering to tell me, work that hours had been spent on being suddenly scrapped.
After pulling a 12+ hour shift to finally get the magazine completed and to the printers I realised my right eye wouldn't close. It was jammed open. In fact I couldn't move that side of my face at all. It looked like it had been botoxed. The corner of my mouth drooped and I was slurring my speech.
I ended up at King George's A&E where what was initially suspected to be a stroke was eventually diagnosed as Bell's Palsy - caused by a combination of stress, lack of sleep, staring at a monitor too long without breaks and... undiagnosed high blood pressure. Very, very high blood pressure.
I guess the near thirty years of tight deadlines and tricky clients finally caught up with me.
I'd been lucky apparently. I'd been sent a warning. A wake-up call. See my GP about the blood pressure else next time it really would be a stroke. Or worse. In the meantime a course of steroids, a few weeks rest, eye drops and chewing lots of gum should sort the facial issues out.
So do yourself a favour - get your blood pressure checked out regularly. And if you have to stare at a bleeding monitor a lot - make sure you take plenty of breaks!
