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Just the beauty of the campus is healing |
After returning to this blog, I immediately went on vacation, it's my way of letting you know that I'm just as useful as your senator or congressional representative. I have been inundated with military, political, medical, theological, and familial issues over the past few months and had to step aside to deal with them. I'll be dealing with them here too, and unlike real life, here I can deal with them one by one at my leisure.
Let's start with Medical.
Twice a year I make a pilgrimage to the Mayo Clinic. Since leaving Denver and the care of the angels at National Jewish Health for my lung issues, I've been seeing Dr. B at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville (or "Jax" to those of us who get tired of spelling it 8 times a day). Mayo Jacksonville is a big, sprawling campus with four (I think, maybe more) huge buildings dedicated to helping shattered people with shattered bodies. Just the landscaping with tropical trees and plants, streams and lakes, is so beautiful that I will park as far away from the main building as possible so I can meander through the lush scenery, and sit in the shade by a cooling fountain and have a chat with God.
Not having to carry an oxygen tank is so wonderful, especially with my back issues that sometimes just standing is too painful to do long. My lung issue is a very rare condition called Pulmonary Hypertension, the capillaries in my lungs are restricted causing the transference of oxygen between the lungs and my circulatory system to be restricted, which in turn causes me to run out of breath quite easily. Even down here in Florida where the barometric pressure of the atmosphere is so much higher than in Denver making it easier for me to breathe, a flight of stairs is a fond memory. I can still make it up the stairs, I just have to go slow and stop several times to get my blood/oxygen level back up. It's called Pulmonary Hypertension because the restriction in my lungs (Pulmonary) causes the blood pressure in my heart to skyrocket (Hypertension) putting a strain on my heart. Using an echocardiogram and occasionally sticking a probe in my heart, my doctors can determine the blood pressure in there. For healthy you the reading is 8 to 12 mmHg. For me it's 35 mmHg.
Don't let the word "Hypertension" trip you up, my blood pressure reading at my arm this morning was 100 over 60, "normal" is 120 over 80. I don't have high blood pressure, I'm a carrier.
I give it to other people.