ALL EYES ON STRESS & HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE
If you’ve ever ignored warnings about the effects of stress, this cautionary – and true – tale could make your eyes bleed!
By Julia de Vries
My friend Carrie and I were treating ourselves to a weekend getaway at a game lodge. She’d been diagnosed with hypertension two weeks previously and quite frankly, it wasn’t surprising. Besides the pressures of the pandemic, repeated lockdowns, home repairs, and a crazy work schedule, she’d also spent years caring for her frail, elderly father. Her stress levels were off the charts, so she was looking forward to some downtime.
We were both delighted with ourselves – we’d had up-close-and personal experiences with giraffes and lions, eaten wonderful food, thrown back a gin and tonic or two, and enjoyed a few hilarious skirmishes with other guests. An hour-long spa session was to be our last hoorah before we headed back to the city and real life.
Carrie had gone to the doctor because she’d been having dizzy spells and severe nosebleeds. At the time, her blood pressure (BP) reading had been so high, the doctor had at first thought his cuff wasn’t working properly. When he got the same reading at a second attempt with another cuff, he realised 188/155 was in fact her actual BP. “You shouldn’t be alive,” he’d told her incredulously.
A normal BP is 120/80. An abnormally high BP (anything over 180/120) significantly increases the risk of heart attacks and stroke, as well as kidney and other diseases. Carrie didn’t tick any of the hypertension trigger boxes of poor diet, lack of exercise, smoking and/or excessive drinking, or being overweight. So her doctor determined that stress was the source of her issues. It was of vital medical importance that she unwind and relax.
So, back to the long-awaited pampering appointment at the swanky game lodge. During the gentle stroll down a bark-strewn path towards the spa, Carrie suffered one of her remarkably violent nose bleeds. “Don’t worry, it’ll stop in about 20 minutes,” she assured me blithely, as bright red blood soaked through the tissues she’d clamped to her face. “I’ll just lie on my back for the massage.”
Within seconds blood began oozing out of Carrie’s tear ducts.
I trotted obligingly next to her. “This is just a warning sign of very high blood pressure,” she stated breezily. I was concerned, but relieved her condition had already been diagnosed and was being treated. Carrie was on a range of BP-lowering medication and had been monitoring her blood pressure religiously during our break.
But what I saw next could not be unseen. While the nosebleed itself was terrifying, the flow soon became so fast and furious that it needed another outlet. And it found one. Well, actually, two. Within seconds, blood began oozing out of Carrie’s tear ducts. It was like something out of a B horror movie – a pair of friends in an idyllic setting, and a sudden, diabolical turn of events. It’s not often you can say you’ve witnessed someone bleeding from their eyes.
Once home, on doctor’s orders, Carrie’s father moved out, and she took a complete three-week break from work. With the help of medication and a vastly scaled-down lifestyle, her blood pressure has slowly started to stabilise.
For Carrie, her bizarre bleeding episode is now a distant memory. Not so for me. Yesterday she suggested we book another weekend away, complete with spa sessions, to make up for the one we never managed to enjoy. I said I’d get back to her.
Read more about how to keep high blood pressure in check.
