Time for another installment of this Wednesday/Sunday night series!
Picking up from last time –
Next, I went to a blood pressure screening. I was so stressed about the day, that my vitals were through the roof! Well, through the roof at least for me.
Unfortunately, I lost the note where I wrote down the results, and I don’t see it in my chart. But I think it was something crazy, like 105/70, with a resting heart rate probably in the 70s.
(Again, so sorry not to have exact numbers here. I can feel my blood pressure shooting up about it now! ;))
Of course I’m totally freaking out when I hear those higher-than-usual numbers. The person taking my blood pressure says it’s all fine.
They did take it basically right as I walked in. So, I had just been walking almost a mile, if that means anything to anyone. And immediately after this, I have my social worker consult! Is there anything more stressful than that?
Anyway, these numbers were extremely distressing. But since I was within the normal limits I had to try to let it go… (It’ll get better the next day. Fret not.)
After the terrifying blood pressure screening, I go to an even more terrifying consult with the social worker. She surprisingly seems very nice!(?)
She apologizes for starting late, as there was some kind of room mix-up or something. It was fine with me that she was late. I was there all day anyway. But just the idea that she cared enough to say sorry – I felt that really set the tone in such a nice way.
She’s not starting by playing games with me to agitate me. She’s being kind. (This could be her own special version of playing games, of course, lulling me in. But I was happy that things started better here.)
One thing I was happy to learn from her, that she said she’d learned from a nephrologist, is that if you want to be a non-directed donor, it’s better to say non-directed rather than altruistic.
I’d gotten used to saying altruistic, since I hear that all the time. But she made a great point that it’s not really altruistic, in that you get something out of it.
You feel good giving a kidney. So, it’s better to use the term non-directed. (And she didn’t even say it in a judge-y way in the least. She was just being helpful. Oh, how I enjoyed her.)
And we’ll talk all about our conversation next time.