So I'm coming home from class today and I'm like, wow, I REALLY gotta go to the bathroom. Oh wait, a wal mart is up ahead! I'll stop, do my duty, and... hey wait, why don't I check my blood pressure while I'm there? Hmm, great idea!

*10 seconds pass*

Hmm, feels like I'm starting to feel flustered. I just felt... funny. I didn't feel as relaxed as I was during majority of the drive to wal mart BEFORE I thought about taking my blood pressure.

So I get there. By this time each step feels like a 500 lb man is stomping on my bladder. I leave the bathroom and think to myself... okay... walk slow, be calm, don't want your blood pressure to shoot through the roof. Left right left...

I approach the blood pressure machine. I sit down at a chair across from it. About 3 minutes pass. When I feel as though I finally calmed down enough to sit in the chair, I make my move. I hit the green button. I feel good. The cuff tightens. No biggie, I'm feelin good. As I hear the first "release" (I assume you hear about 5 or 6 before the cuff fully releases) I'm like..... AHHHHHHHHHHH and I can feel my heart rate pick up. Why? I don't know. I was thinking about puppies running in meadows and flying birds green grass and a big ole cigar with a corona. Yessssssss.

151/92.

WHAAAAAT?

I rub my arm for about 10 seconds and wait another 2 minutes. I take it again.

150/94.

.........I don't believe I have high blood pressure. A month ago I took it twice. It was 118/80 and 119/82 (taken twice in ten minutes). Ever since then, and ever since of my newfound hypertension whitehead yadda yadda whatever it is, if I think about taking my blood pressure, I just... I get tense. I can't counter it. I sit there and I'm like, DUDE, you're 20! You're healthy! You exercise often! You're fine! But I just can't counter it, at all! AHHHHHHHH! Doesn't matter if I'm at the doctors or in a damn kmart. It's all the same to me. Blah.

Your routine is hilarious and pretty representative of what we White Coaters get when trying to get a good calm reading. The more "calm" we try to get the worse we wind ourselve up...like going to a hangman's noose.

Full Bladder: it kicks up the BP and probably stays up for many minutes.

Cure for Wallmart hypertension: NEVER take a reading at Wallmart!:jester:

The only way to win this game is to buy a home tester and take about 3 readings a day. EVENTUALLY you get acclimated as your nervous system gets sick of kicking up a fuss. Of course, the nervous system will ALWAYS kick up a fuss when approaching a doctor standing there fully armed with a sphygmomanometer...he might as well be holding an UZI! :dizzy: