Jerry CGI+

I have ceased medication today.  And surprisingly (though perhaps not), my blood pressure is lower than when I was taking them.  There are a few side effects to the final withdrawal, a little lightheadedness, a little shortness of breath.  But it’s nothing compared to when I was going off the other three.  And these I attribute to having resumed the amlodipine for a few days.  I was having the effects before I quit.  They’re just slightly elevated.

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And they may also have to do with the weather conditions and my having opened up the house to enjoy the rise in temperature.  It’s in the 70’s this morning with high humidity.  My lymph nodes seem to be swelling up, indication that my body is fighting off something, most likely airborne.  Early pollen is certainly a possibility there.

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But it feels good to stop dosing myself.  I never liked the idea of a constant flow of pharmaceuticals into my bloodstream, and after 21 months of a steady flow, I can finally put the nightmare behind me.

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I attribute part of this to my experience in self control of the mind.  This is one thing that has interested me since teen years, and over the years, I have learned to co-exist with my body through use of the mind.  It is one thing that has helped keep me healthy through years of less than stellar treatment of my body.  The problem is that we have no semantics for this sort of activity.  We have no words that describe a mental process that affects the medulla other than vague terms like meditation.  The ability to control heart rate, release antibodies, and so forth is something that is recognized, but thus far, uncharted in science.  With the withdrawal from medication, I have been using it extensively to help my body adjust.  And it may well be partially responsible for the lowering of blood pressure.  I have learned to drop it 20 points on the systolic in a matter of a couple of minutes.  And I may have triggered the cure for the extreme blood pressure in the process.

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My systolic  blood pressure is still above what is considered normal.  The diastolic is fine, usually in the 70’s.  But the systolic is staying below 160, a considerable drop from peaks into the 190’s that I had while on medication.  The peaks happened usually when the drugs were wearing off.  And that is a known effect of the medication.  The body fights against the medication, and as it wears off, he body overcompensates.  I’m not seeing the normal range in the systolic without medication yet.  And I’m not sure if I ever will.  I am elderly, overweight, and have the post-operative issues.  But I am making an effort to bring it down with mental exercises.  And now that I’ll be off the medication, I should be able to resume a better physical exercise program, which should help as well.  My diet is not an issue, as I stay away from salt and other known items that aggravate pressure.

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The one thing that relieves me is being free of the overall effect that I was experiencing from prolonged use of the drugs.  Edema, shortness of breath, a creeping increase in blood pressure, the extreme peaks, drowsiness, overly vivid dreaming, and all the rest.  I’m still not entirely detoxed.  I have a few more days left before that happens.  I am past the stage where the drugs still affect me as prescribed.  But it will still take a bit for the final dregs to wash clean from my bloodstream.

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I’m thrilled to be off them.  I have disabled the alerts on my phone and laptop.  It hasn’t sunk in yet.  I’m still in the mindset of looking toward the next dosing.  It’s going to take a while to break that habit of nearly two years.  And I have a couple of days of detoxing yet.

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I need to get to Webberville to put a lock on my storage unit.  The owners called me and informed me that the lock disappeared.  It was a flimsy lock, but it was on the shed that held the less valuable items.  So I’m not rushing over to put a new one on.  But I do need to drop off winter clothes, pick up fans, get one of the Lazy Boys, and more.  It’s season changing time.  But I need to detox first, and get the pickup road ready after the fan belt incident. Oil change, filters, etc.  It’s almost there, but not quite.

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And then I need to get to Bryan for the new tags for the truck, go to music school, and otherwise cause trouble.  But it’s heading in that direction.  And then there is Spring Fling in a month.  I’ll be ready for it.