Trigger warning...family member diagnosis has sent me spiraling...

[artist12]

Just need a safe place to vent...

My uncle has had basically what amounts to a stroke in his eye, due to high blood pressure. Sadly he has gone from totally fine, on blood pressure meds for years as many are, to nearly entirely blind in the span of two weeks since it happened. It's irreversible and almost always happens quickly in the other eye after the first goes, from what I understand.

I'm of course heartbroken for him, he is only early 50s, and my mom (his sister) is taking it especially hard. She deals with anxiety as well and is now convinced we are all a ticking time bomb as hypertension and heart related issues run in our family. Last night she told my brother (who is 18!) and I that we need to start monitoring our blood pressure at home.

It's also stoked my fears again of a brain aneurysm...I just feel like I'm on the verge of panic and my mother is not helping. I know she's not responsible for my actions and my thoughts but I have felt myself retracting from her and the family because I can't take the constant panic from her, either.

I know I need to lose some weight and I did smoke in my early 20s so it's really easy to listen to my mom talk about how these problems run in my family and become convinced that this fate is waiting for me, too.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'm really sorry to hear about your uncle, Angela. It's going to be hard to adjust but he will work it out and live a different form of happy life. :hugs: Going blind would be hard for anyone to take in and I doubt we can truly appreciate it without being blind. Hopefully he will be getting plenty of medical support and I would imagine their are support groups with other blind people that will be a great help to him in believing he has a life after this.

I've just been diagnosed with Hypertension. My parents are in their seventies and they've had it for ages too. They said to me it could be a family thing but it's most likely a wake up call from my body that not getting enough exercise and still eating like I'm younger are things I can't do anymore.

Just follow the advice on salt & sugar, stay active, etc and it will keep your body healthy so you may never even have it as you get older. But given your age I would be very surprised, much more so your brother, unless their were other health factors involved like obesity. But even then I'm only guessing without understanding more because Hypertension is something that comes along from your forties and earlier can mean something genetic as far as I understand it (still learning about it myself).

Talk about the elephant in the room - stress is one to cut down. I was being prescribed meds by the senior practice nurse but it had to be ok'd by a GP. In he came to check my heart and told me "no more stress, young man" :roflmao: if only!