SPINE SURGERY AND OTHER "BAD NEWS" Part Two

Waiting for my primary doctor a week ago, I discovered that my blood pressure was much higher than I expected.  I had been feeling rather calm sitting there in the chair.  I don't know if my unconscious was giving me a clue that I didn't belong there.  Now I remember that I had the same problem at my first visit to that doctor.

At another doctor's office a week or two earlier, my pressure was good.

Several years ago, a back-office nurse had hinted that the electronic bp machines can be perhaps a bit haywire. Or is it me?

Anyway, back to the earlier blog post on reactions to bad news.  This time I want to talk about our responses, or at least mine.  Do I really shut down when I hear bad news?   When I don't expect to get the answers I need?  Why could I never ask my spine surgeon about the scary plastic visual aid with the big, shiny screws in it?  Why do I go home without asking the questions I need to ask?  Why can't I  even think what the questions are?

Looking for something unrelated this morning in Malcolm Gladwell's BLINK, I think I found the answers.  There, on page 225, in the chapter Seven Seconds in the Bronx, was a little sticky marker (mine.)  And lots of big underlining, with BIG exclamation points about what happens in people's heads and whole bodies when our blood pressure climbs past a certain point.  No wonder I leave some medical offices without asking for or getting answers!

Gladwell explained it better than I can.   I wonder if any of my doctors have read it.   Will you look it up and tell me what you think?