08-30-2008, 05:34 PM
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Member
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Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 57
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Why Bother?
It's Fair season in Northern New England. Farmers and gardeners bring out the cream of their crops for judging, men (and women) bring out their strong work horses for competition in pulling large weights, and the 4-H kids display their efforts from the year. Our local hospital has a van set up with health care brochures and they have nurses and LNA's volunteer to do blood pressure and blood glucose screenings. The patrons line up for these little peeks into the condition of their health. 99% of the people fall into the "normal range" or slightly above. Those who's numbers are a little elevated get encouragement to monitor their bp's or bg level and to follow up with their primary care doc. But I had one guy who's blood pressure was screaming STROKE!!! and his blood glucose was over 400 even after 3 hours since he last ate. Of course the recommendation for this man was a trip to the ER. (yes, his bp was that high!) His response? "No, I feel fine. It's been higher than this at the drugstore machine." We had him wait a bit and rechecked the bp, and it was a little higher. We explained the consequences of not having these issues taken care of. He still would not go to the ER. We asked the EMS folks to talk to him, and still no go. He finally left, saying he was going to have some fried dough and a beer. Then why bother having it checked in the first place?!
Just venting.
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