How buying a house saved my life

As 2021 began in the UK the government made it a touch easier to get on the housing ladder, or for those on it, easier to move up it; the reason boiled down to the global pandemic, trying to build both trust and security. For my partner and I, we had planned to have a big move in 2022 the government initiative however pushed that forward by a year.

Going through the process was simple enough. But given my age which is fifteen years older than my partner meant I would be past retirement age when the mortgage would be paid. The insurers who would give us the security of a home for life should one of us depart earlier than planned, wanted me to take out a medical. While I’m seemingly well enough each day, I had a number of underlying health issues which further bolstered the request for the medical.

Come the day of the medical, all the tests went incredibly well, but then, there was this casual “but”. The but in this case was that my blood pressure seemed high. The medical examiner put it down to “white coat syndrome” a term used to describe those that are afraid of medical figures. I explained I had no fear, to which she suggested I get a blood pressure monitor to check out my blood pressure on a daily basis, as during the medical I was clocking in at 190, which she said was incredibly high. She suggested I monitor my blood pressure for 30 days then make an appointment to see my doctor to discuss the readings. Being ever compliant, a mindset I had adopted a year after entering a pandemic, having spent a lifetime going against rules, I purchased a monitor and carried on checking my blood pressure over the following weeks.

Around a week after the medical I received a message from the insurers saying that they would like to talk to my doctor to discuss my blood pressure, which again I complied with. Some days later I received a call “Mr Hawken?”, yes I replied, “Oh its your doctor here, just calling to check you were still alive?”, I laughed and said sorry. “You see normally when people have high pressure its customary to get in touch with your doctor to discuss what can be down to remedy the issue.” Humour over I knew this was going to be a very serious chat, especially given that while my blood pressure was 180 at the time of testing, and for several days after, on my birthday I got a kidney infection out of the blue and as this hit my blood pressure rose to around 204 and stayed there. Unbeknown to me, the kidney infection was a warning sign.

Let’s just side-track for a second here, to talk about perception. over the years I as no doubt have you, had heard of people having high blood pressure and because they seemed to be living a relatively normal life I thought this was just some elaborate terminology for ‘taking it easy’ or rather the need to do so. I never truly understood the ramifications of high blood pressure and frankly in my mind I treated it as a “non-event”.

Back with my doctor he asked, “Do either of your parents have or did they have high blood pressure”, I instantly had a sense of foreboding, because I knew my next answer was going to raise red flags, because both my parents died in their 40’s, my father at 48 suddenly of something called a Myocardial Infarction, a sudden instant fatal heart attack that comes out of nowhere. My birthday took me to 48 years old, the same age as when my father died. My doctor told me that this was a very serious issue and prescribed me tablets that I should go and collect immediately “we need to get this blood pressure down as soon as possible!” he told me. “Mr Hawken, you are hours, days or weeks NOT months away from a very serious seismic life changing situation.”

In America half a million people die each year as a result of illnesses that connect to high blood pressure, this is just 100,000 behind the death toll of those that die from cancer related illnesses, yet in the UK we hear all about the cancer, but never about the blood pressure. The gateway from being normal to having high blood pressure is 120, anything above 120 needs to be checked out. Often referred to as the Silent Killer, high blood pressure often effects people in such a way they do not feel any side effects, they simply one day have a serious medical situation, or die. When I discussed the matter further with my doctor, he explained to me that most likely all of those sudden deaths we have heard about stem from high blood pressure, those people we see in our everyday life and suddenly are gone are most likely victims of this silent killer, they never lived to know what they were dealing with, because most of us do not check our blood pressure.

The result so far for me has been mixed, I’m on a series of tablets that I’ll be taking for the remainder of my life, potentially dangerous to miss, tablets have become a daily part of my life as essential as food and water. The tablets have so far taken over 3 months to settle with my physicality and now I am beginning to feel at least half human, some days I struggled to get out of bed the impact of the tablets being so severe, this is most likely the very reason why many abandon blood pressure tablets after a short period of time. Interestingly the positive for me was that I was someone who has been dogged with headaches, for the last 30 years getting a headache that lasts for days. The minute the tablets started my headaches stopped, I now have had a period of 14 weeks without a headache, the longest period most likely in my entire life. The headaches were previously paired off with my Coeliac disease, but now it seems most likely linked with my blood pressure levels. My blood pressure is still high, but in my doctors view much more controlled with highs of 154 and lows of 118.

While issues with blood pressure are most likely heard about as being diagnosed to those that reach middle age, we’ve all heard stories of people of younger ages struck down in their prime, in their 30s, 20s or at times in their teens. Having a blood pressure monitor to hand and regularly checking your levels should be seen as every bit as essential as eating o4 drinking for the sake of $30 you could clear up a lot of issues and anxiety, carrying out basic tests to ensure you are more likely to reach a good age. For many blood pressure issues can be linked to stress, but for others its genetic and in my case, activated like a flick of a switch. Don’t gamble with your life, check out your blood pressure often.