Seattle Plastic Surgeon, Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder, Returns From Her Montanta Getaway and Starts Nagging You Again.
This won’t hurt one bit and could save you a lot of trouble!
I met an interesting lady on my flight from Montana to Seattle yesterday. She works in a kidney dialysis unit so of course we chatted about kidney disease.
The number two reason for a patient to have kidney failure is the so-called silent killer: high blood pressure. (Number one is diabetes.) High blood pressure is called silent because, more often than not, there are no symptoms and the person with high blood pressure feels fine. It is called killer because the long term damage on the kidneys, blood vessels and the heart can be fatal.
There are a boat load of medications available to treat high blood pressure and many of them have very few or very mild side effects. So if you haven’t had your blood pressure check lately, get thee to a pharmacy and stick you arm in the cuff. It won’t hurt a bit. If your reading is high, make an appointment to see your doctor for evaluation.
And why would a plastic surgeon give a rip about your blood pressure? I take the blood pressure on all of my patients at their preoperative visit because 1. I care and 2. I won’t do certain facial procedures on patients with high blood pressure because of the risk of postoperative bleeding. I am very happy to report that over the years, I have sent many a patient to their primary care doctor for treatment for their high blood pressure and hopefully have helped a few avoid the many complications of chronic high blood pressure.
Thanks for reading and, really, get your blood pressure checked. Dr. Lisa Lynn Sowder
@lisalynnsowder
