31. THAT’S NOT HOW THIS WORKS
When I was a medical student, I did an overnight ambulance ride-along. It was a slow night, so I was excited when dispatch called about what sounded like a stroke or loss of consciousness.
We zip over there, and the paramedic knocks on the door of a darkened house. A man opens the door – slowly – and says, “Oh, yes, she’s in the back room.” My sense of foreboding grew as we slowly made our way through the dim house, wondering what awful sight I would see back there.
Just before we get to the back room, the light flicks on and this spry elderly woman practically bounces out of the room, carrying her bag of meds, cheerily saying, “Oh good, hello gentlemen! Let’s go to the dining room and I’ll tell you what’s been happening!”
She explains how she is on meds for high blood pressure, but instead of taking them as prescribed, she takes more or less depending on how she’s feeling or something. Before bed she took her BP on her home automatic machine, and it was a little high, so she kept repeating it and the numbers kept going higher and higher.
She thought she was going to stroke out so called 911. Of course they were going up because she was freaking out about the previously high numbers, causing a vicious circle. Even though both I and the paramedic knew she was more than likely fine, neither of us were doctors and so had to take her to the hospital for assessment.
So yeah, either she didn’t understand her meds and the machine properly, or she thought she was too smart to follow her doctor’s instructions.
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