My Mom’s High Blood (Hypertensive) Experience

My mother, Marilou Biadog, 46 years old and a mother of 6 has been suffering from hypertension for as long as I can remember. I would like to share our family experiences while battling through my Mom’s medical condition in hopes of increasing awareness on hypertension, on how important early detection is and of course its prevention.

Hypertension is tagged as a killer disease because of the damage it can cause to one’s organ system. It is defined as an elevated blood pressure which exceeds 140mmHg over 90mmHg (a systolic pressure above of 140 with a diastolic pressure above 90). Blood pressure is measured by a medical device called sphygmomanometer.

Fortunately, my younger sister, Vanessa, is a registered nurse and she monitors my Mom’s blood pressure every day. Vanessa also takes care of my Mom’s diet making sure she eats right and avoids fatty foods (which my Mom loves so much!).

The main reason behind my Mom’s medical condition was her sedentary lifestyle. Her only exercise was a 400 meter walk from our house to the sari- sari store that she mans for the entire day. She was also fond of eating junk foods and fatty foods (read: chicharon, Lechon, etc). It was really not a shock to all of us when we found out two years ago that Mom has hypertension. It was really bound to happen. I just wish she listened to us and lived a healthier lifestyle instead. I was once a personal trainer and I normally regulate my athlete’s weight that’s why it was a bit frustrating that I could not “regulate” my own mother’s but who am I to blame her when eating made her happy.

When we found out she has hypertension, we asked her to see a Cardiologist and have her checked. She was prescribed to take Combizar 50mg once a day to help regulate her elevated blood pressure. Mom told me that when she forgets to take her medicine, she feels unwell. There was a time when my mother would still eat fatty foods and would just take her medicine afterwards. This of course was a very bad habit and poses a threat to her current medical condition that is why my sister monitors our Mom everyday. Combizar works well with my Mom that’s why we didn’t think of making her take herbal medicines and besides her Cardiologist was also against it.

As my Mom puts it,

"Siguro dugay na ko naga saka bp ko,pro gin balewala ko lang.sang time na permi lang ga laen matyag ko pa consulta ko taas bp ko advice sang dr. monitor ko bp for 1 week daily so didto na balan na hypertension ko.so advice sang dr. daily maintenace ko sang una ang take ko bolong is lifezar take man ko but ang bp ko indi ma maintain.so islan ang bolong sobong ang maintenance ko combizar 50 mg. daily kong nd ko kainom kis a malipat ko maglaen matyag ko taas bp ko.kinaglan inom gid adlaw2 kag likaw sa bawal ,stress ,angry kag ma depress"

(Maybe I have been suffering from high blood pressure more than we thought because whenever I feel unwell, I just shrugged it off. But when the time came that I was really under the weather, I consulted a doctor and found out that I had high blood pressure. The doctor advised that I should monitor my BP once a day for one week. And it was confirmed that I have high blood. At first my medicine was lifezar but my blood pressure did not go down so it was changed to Combizar. I take it daily because when I miss, I feel very unwell. I really need to take it everyday and must avoid stress, getting angry and depression.)

My Mom’s not as techie as we are so she relies on newspapers and televisions for health updates but I do check on the Internet for the latest news on Hypertension just to make sure we are abreast of what’s the latest.

With my Mom’s current condition I was made into thinking that if at an early age we start living a healthy lifestyle we would be less likely to fall for this killer disease. As the doctors would always say, prevention is better than cure. We need to be aware that whatever abuse we do to our bodies, it’ll put a toll on our health as we get older. It’ll come to us and haunt us in the future. The World Health Organization said that in a year, there are more than a million deaths from hypertension which is truly sad and worrisome.

Hypertension is also the second highest cause of death in the Philippines because of the underlying damage it causes such as stroke, brain damage, bleeding of the brain, heart attack, eye damage, heart failure, and kidney failure (and thus it’s called the killer disease).

My Mom’s advice to people with hypertension is that, ask for support. You can’t possibly win over this disease without help from your family and friends.  Closely monitor your condition and treat each symptom seriously because hypertension can really cause great damage.

So friends and family, help me spread my Mom’s experience with hypertension to increase awareness and to help inform people that it pays to live a healthy lifestyle.