Doctors Visits

I generally consider myself a fairly healthy person (although I must confess that I do very little to actually maintain that condition), but the one thing that I don't really like to doing is going to see a doctor. I think that part of this dislike stems from my desire be self-reliant. Just as I much prefer to work on my own cars, my own house, my own appliances, I like to think that I'm perfectly capable of maintaining myself without outside assistance.

The other part of it arises out of my fear of criticism. The next sentence or two will probably make me out to be incredibly stubborn and ignorant, but I don't want any of you to tell me that, as to why, you will find out. The one thing that I have never felt comfortable with is criticism, constructive or not. Anytime a person makes a suggestion to me as to how I could do something better, or how I could have avoided a certain situation, I take it very personally. Now, being the introspective, conflict avoider that I am, I don't make light of this when it happens. I generally sit and reflect on what has been said; how I let that person (or someone else) down and how I'm really not as good at things as I tend to make myself out to be. This is probably part of the reason that I tend to be self-reliant; people can't stick their noses into "my business" and see how I handle situations.

Anyhow, I visited the dentist this afternoon (which is how this whole post came about, weird, huh?). I'll admit that I probably a poor dental patient (although I do sit stiller than a cadaver while they clean my teeth...I take pride in that) because I don't floss my teeth on a daily basis. Aside from being reprimanded for that and getting the suggestion that I procure an electric toothbrush, the hygienist took my blood pressure. I know a lot of folks blame their high blood pressure on actually sitting in the dentists chair, my blood pressure is generally 115/68. However, this time, my blood pressure was 140/82. Yikes! That would explain the rough idle in the morning.

I'm going to blame work for the additional stress on my circulatory system. I said that I wasn't going to talk about work on here, but I'm just going to state that ever since I was rather unceremonially dumped into my current position, my general level of overall physical and mental health has declined.

I'm going in next week for a tune-up...