Hypertension Dimension

Good Tuesday! I hope everyone had a wonderful Memorial Day, ours was spent traversing from family to family, but overall it was a lot of fun. My work schedule in June is going to be a little different – this week I’m working today, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Starting next week, however, I’ll be in the office on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and half days on Thursday, so expect blog entries on those days. Anyways, onwards!

Since the last few entries have been more lighthearted, I thought that I would talk about something a little more medical today. I’ve had a plethora of patients recently that have all had severely elevated blood pressures, and (of course) they’re not on any type of medication. Most of them also smoke, say that they can’t afford any medication because it’s so expensive, and of course, and can’t go to a doctor because they can’t afford that, either. Let’s look at the first and second excuse.

A pack of cigarettes is around (last time I checked) $5. So if you smoke 1 pack of cigarettes a day, your habit just cost you $150 for that month. Lisinopril (a common first line high-blood pressure medication) is $4 for a month’s supply. Now, I’m no math expert, but 4$ for 30 days worth of medication…$5 for 20 cigarettes that you smoke in one day….well, I guess it’s your lungs and your life. What I don’t understand is people that smoke two or three packs of cigarettes a day – when do they have time to do anything else? I guess if you light up the second you wake up, and then smoke yourself to sleep that night you could do it, but otherwise, man, that’s a lot of time spent puffing.

As for the last excuse, most cities have some sort of free-clinic(s) system set up - mine is no different - but like I’ve said before, it doesn’t matter how many free clinics there are, if the patients can’t get to them, they won’t use them. Now, you might say, “what about buses or trolleys?” Unfortunately, Mass Transit in this city is about as prevalent as actually disabled people applying for disability, so that’s out. The same goes for adequate sidewalks (not that most of these people could walk more than a block at a time anyway.) So, what do we do? Some cities have proposed a type of “mobile free clinic” that serves “needy areas.” What, however, defines needy? Should it just be limited to lower income populations, or should anyone be able to get, say, blood pressure medication or their eyes checked for free? Without delving in the whole socialized medicine debate, my own personal belief is that basic health services should be available to everyone regardless of economic status. As for more than that, well, that’s the subject of another blog.

So, in summation, we have a large number of people with high blood pressure who…
A:) Can’t afford to see a doctor to have their blood pressure checked and receive a prescription
B:) Can’t afford said prescription (maybe because they smoke, maybe other reasons)
C:) Are unable to travel to a free clinic to receive free medication
D:) And definitely can’t afford the resultant hospital bill when they stroke out or have a heart attack

What do we do with this problem? Aside from putting hypertension medication in the water, I feel that the only way we’re going to do something about this conundrum is to really increase the availability of basic care options throughout the city. That said, it doesn’t matter how many free clinics we have if people aren’t going to take responsibility for their own health. Maybe it seems like common sense, but if you have lung problems, don’t smoke. If you have heart problems, don’t smoke. If you want to get pregnant, don’t smoke. In fact, the only people who should be smoking out there are people who want to have that “aged” look without having to wait for time to roll by.

Sigh, I know a lot of times I sound like a broken record on this blog, but really people, please cherish your bodies – it’s the only one you’ve got. That said, wear some sunscreen, too. And exercise…oh forget it, you get the picture!

And now for the disability quote of the day:

Me: “So I see you’re on disability currently, why?”
Dude: “Because I got made fun of in school.”
Me: “There has to be something more than that.”
Dude: “Well, I was only reading at an 8th grade level in 12th grade. But I graduated anyway, so they can TAKE THAT, SUCKERS!”
Me: “Ok ….”
Dude: “Yep, I’m getting rich off of being clinically stupid.”

Prevention is the best form of medicine,
-DD