Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

Note: Please do not call an ambulance to come pick me up. The blood pressure has not dropped significantly, but I no longer get such high numbers as the photo above shows, even one day having 133 / 81.

When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”
“We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.”
Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

• Genesis 40:6-8

As morning dawned, the men were sent on their way with their donkeys.

• Genesis 44:3

Then the Lord said to Moses, “Get up early in the morning and confront Pharaoh as he goes to the river and say to him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Let my people go, so that they may worship me. If you do not let my people go, I will send swarms of flies on you and your officials, on your people and into your houses. The houses of the Egyptians will be full of flies; even the ground will be covered with them.

• Exodus 8:20-21

Picture Joseph in prison.  He was a good administrator, and they gave him a lot of responsibilities, but he was still a prisoner.  His one escape from his plight was to sleep.

“To die, to sleep – to sleep, perchance to dream – ay, there’s the rub, for in this sleep of death what dreams may come…”

• William Shakespeare, Hamlet (said by Hamlet to himself)

But no, it is morning and he has two new prisoners who are haunted by their dreams.  He could have escaped into his own dreams, but then the day had started …

The sons of Israel had just gotten a load of grain so that the extended family could survive.  They had left with their donkeys and their youngest brother Benjamin, and they had no idea that Pharoah’s right hand man had his cup placed in Benjamin’s bag.  They were figuring out how far they could get, and where the next oasis would be, but then the day had started …

Pharoah was pleasantly thinking back to the previous catastrophes.  The water had turned to blood.  Egypt had survived that.  Then Egypt was covered by frogs.  Egypt had survived that.  Then gnats covered everything.  Egypt had survived that.  Then this upstart Moses comes in and tells him that flies are next.  Pharoah thought, ‘Good luck pulling that one off,’ but then the day had started …

I had written some time ago about having my blood pressure slowly going up.  When my diastolic started getting above 100 on occasion, I asked for an appointment with my cardiologist.  I saw the nurse instead.  She said my home blood pressure cuff was reading lower than hers, one that had been calibrated.  That meant what I was reading on my home system was even higher than what I was recording.

She talked to the doctor and a new medication was prescribed, about a week later.

The nurse also told me that I was taking the pressure readings at the wrong time.  I needed to take the readings two hours after I took my morning medicines.  That way, the medicines will have a chance to take effect.

There are two problems with that idea.  My routine is interrupted.  I always took my blood pressure while my computer was waking up.  I had only gotten dressed, taken my medication, and walked downstairs.  No strenuous activity, but, indeed, the medicines had not gotten into my blood stream.  Since my routine was disrupted, I would forget to take my blood pressure.

The other problem about delaying two hours…  But then the day has started.

What has happened in those two hours?

• I have walked up and down two flights of stairs about 8-10 times.
• My water pill takes effect about two hours after I take it, thus more trips to the bathroom, two floors up, and often in a hurry.
• I have gotten a few telephone calls from telemarketing criminals, at least I think most of them are doing criminal activity.
• I have, on some days, driven my wife to dialysis and had some idiot who is texting while driving force me into the ditch or maybe he or she is eating a breakfast sandwich, but what difference does it make when he or she is not looking where they are going.
• I have had the computer tell me that there is a more recent copy of that file on the cloud, just to find out that the “more recent” copy is three days old, and I update that file daily.
• I have found a spider in the ice maker water, floating on its back with its legs in the air.
• I have washed a load of clothes.
• I have washed a sink full of dishes.
• I go to throw away a single soiled paper towel to find that the kitchen trash can is already overflowing onto the floor, tying off that bag, inserting a new liner in the kitchen trash can, and then placing the one paper towel into the new trash bag and of course taking the full bag to the back porch where we keep our trash can for street use.
• I check the calendar which is on the refrigerator above the kitchen trash can and discover that we have morning doctor appointments, kidney dialysis, or church for the next twelve days in a row, thus awakening by the alarm and not able to “sleep in” for twelve more days, and my wife complains that I am going to bed earlier and earlier – that I have no “life” anymore – but when can I get any sleep? I am already going to bed before the sun goes down – Stupid Daylight Savings Time!!!!

I liked the nurse.  My blood pressure came down while she smiled and said, “Let me take that again with your other arm.”  It was the opposite of the white coat syndrome.  You know, your blood pressure is fine until the person in the white coat enters the room.  No, I see someone who cares coming into the room, who has a calming effect, and the blood pressure comes down.  Now maybe the voluptuous redheaded nurse with green eyes, you know, the twenty-something…  That might be different, but with nurses that are not “fantasy nurses,” the blood pressure comes down.

My blood pressure this morning was 184 over 121, but then on the second try, it was 162 over 87.  Still high, but not crazy high.

You would think that taking three medicines that are supposed to reduce your blood pressure that it would be 130 over 65…

But then the day had started.

Lord, your hand was on Joseph.  He was forgotten for a while, but then the cupbearer remembered.  Benjamin was arrested, but then they found out that this Egyptian who arrested him was really their brother Joseph whom they had sold into slavery.  And Pharoah would see ten plagues and have his first born son die before he would let the Israelites go free, all in a grand plan to establish a kingly line that would lead to Your Son dying on a cross.  You have a plan for me too.  Will the blood pressure come down or will I simply continue to write while having a high blood pressure?  I have had high pulse and higher than normal blood pressure most of my life.  Is my present blood pressure just a number?  I leave that up to you, Lord.  In Your Name I pray, Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.