Uy Vey

My family has a history of high blood pressure. Just to show you how bad it is, let me share you this story. My cousin Terry tends to get bad allergies when the Santa Anas start blowing. At the ripe age of 17, his sneezes can set car alarms off. Lately the Santa Anas have been fairly strong. The other night he ended up getting a nose bleed. And this isn’t one of your standard I-picked-my-nose-and-popped-a-small-blood-vessel type of nosebleed. No. Apparantly one of the bigger veins burst causing him to bleed like mad. It was so bad, blood was coming out of his tear ducts. Apparently his blood pressure is sky high. The ears, nose and throat specialist said he has never seen anything like this. Remember, this is a 17-year old! Fortunately I go to the doctor’s every six months to monitor my liver*. I constantly have my blood pressure checked, and thank heavens it’s normal (a tad elevated, but nothing to worry about now). So yeah. There’s no moral of the story. All I have to say is, “HOLY SHIT!” * In 97, I went for a physical, and my bloodwork showed an abnormality with my liver. There was a high concentration of fatty deposits on my liver, the first sign of cancer. I went in for an ultrasound which was inconclusive. I had a biopsy done which was inconclusive. Since then, I get my bloodwork done every six months. So far, so good (knock on wood).