Blood Pressure

Last Friday was The American Heart Association's Go Red for Women Day.  The American Heart Association puts this on every year and it has become a nationwide event. The purpose of Go Red for Women is to raise awareness of heart disease in women. (Did you know that heart disease is the number 1 killer of women?) It is known as the "silent killer" because symptoms develop over years, often without you even knowing it. The movement is targeted for women because in the past the majority of studies relating to heart disease have been linked to men. This is no longer a disease that affects really old men. Heart disease affects men AND women of ALL races. The goal is to get you to know your risk factors and make lifestyle changes to protect your health and reduce your personal risk.

Rather than make it a day about women only, I opened it up to my staff at work school wide. We were going to all wear red and they could come down and get their blood pressure checked. If they wore red and/or got their blood pressure checked, they could enter their name in a drawing for some prizes I had put together. 

Turns out we had a snow day Friday, so my Go Red for Women Day got delayed. We have all been trying to catch up this week from being out last week (and working ahead in case we're out more this week) so I changed it up a little. I told the staff to come by Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday to get their blood pressure checked. The drawing would still take place and they could enter their name in the drawing each time they had their blood pressure taken. This is the first thing I have done school wide at the High School. I had always had great success in the Elementary School I was at previously, but I have significantly more staff members here. I will admit, I was a little worried about participation. So far it has gone great though!! I will count it as success...and the main reason is what happened yesterday.

I had a staff member come in with a couple other ladies and her blood pressure ended up being in the 200s/90s. WAY too high. We want it to be under 120/80!! I told her she needed to see her doctor IMMEDIATELY. She kind of wrote me off, I think. She came back about 45 minutes later for a recheck and it was even higher than before. I told her she could not be at school working in that condition. I explained the danger she was putting herself in. I told her that if she didn't call someone to come get her I would have to call an ambulance to take her to the hospital. She then realized the importance of what I was trying to tell her. I thought about her the rest of the day and wondered what happened. She came back today to get her blood pressure checked again. The doctor put her on medication and told her to thank me for possibly saving her life. Her blood pressure was down today...still on the high side but much, much better.

This is why I love my job!! Making a difference in people's lives and having God bless me through their thanks. Here I'm thinking I'm putting this event on and it will be a total flop, and it ends up saving a woman's life. I don't know how the rest of it will turn out...and frankly, I don't care!! I don't care who wins the prizes, I don't care how many people take the opportunity, and I don't care what people are saying about it. I know that God delayed it happening until this week so this particular woman would benefit from having her blood pressure monitored over the course of a week, rather than checked on just one day...and that makes me soooo happy!!

(Can you tell I worked with heart patients previously? I'm just a little bit passionate about catching heart disease early because I've taken care of the people recovering from open heart surgery and I know how devastating it can be.)