Pressure Up, so, Pressure's Up

150-100.
160-110.

No, not lopsided NBA scores. That is my blood pressure on Sunday and today, respectively. It began with a shaky trip to church yesterday, which ended in me turning around and driving carefully home.

Your kids won't remember this, but there used to be "horizontal" and "vertical" controls on your TV to make sure the picture didn't go "roly-poly". My horizontal control began to break down yesterday. I remember one time the scene in front of me just kinda move from right to left. I had the most difficult time keeping my eyes open. All this with my seven-year-old daughter in the back seat, watching The Lion King II.

I counted the exits to see how far I could go, and after 28 miles, I couldn't go any further. I took the exit, turned around, and headed the home way of 295, calling my wife in the process to try to explain the bizarre incident I was experiencing.

I left her on the cell phone the whole way home, updating her on when we hit a certain benchmark. She told me she'd come get me, but I was scared to pull over, thinking I might fall asleep or, worse, pass out, and scare the mess out of Rachel. Trust me, had I been in a position where driving would have been life-threatening, I would have pulled over.

We made it, immediately checked BP, and got the first reading. Medicine, and straight to bed. Yesterday was opening day of NFL football, and our fantasy league, usually one of the highlight days of my year. I saw a few plays on the TV, sound turned all the way down, just on while I spent the day sleeping.

The only football I really saw was the opening of the ESPN Sunday night game, because I was bound and determined to see Pat Summerall.

Because of the intense (and that's a mild descriptive word) pressure at work right now, I forced myself in. One-half day's work of problems, and when I go pick up Rachel from school and meet Mom at home as she arrives from work, we check BP again and get that 2nd figure. I'd been 150-100 before....but never 160-110. I immediately blamed it on a certain account executive who was driving me nuts today......

So, the doctor gets a call in the AM; I'm liable to have two doctor appointments tomorrow. Shoulder doctor at 330pm, my regular doctor.....well, we'll find out.

In the meantime, I'm going to catch a play or two of Green Bay/Carolina, live in the misery that I just figured out 45 minutes ago my fantasy team lost its opener, and get as much sleep as possible.

Irony thought of the day: September 12, 2004, I spend most of day in bed, missing church (work). September 12, 2002, I spend most of day in bed, missing work (radio), until the phone rang at 6pm with the news that Mama had been rushed to the hospital with a seizure. I pull myself out of bed and meet her there, and we get the horrific news that Mama's lung cancer was now in her brain. Thus began her final 107 days.

At least there wasn't horrific news yesterday......