I've not had a Tuesday night off in awhile, one of my Python nights. However my course wound up last week and I'm free to join Wanderers. Steve Mastin is doing Blood Pressure a second time, and I missed the Wednesday morning event, so this is a fine opportunity to learn from a scientist.
I'll not be staying to the end though, as I'm trying to supervise Carol's recovery. It's a cold wet night, with a furnace repairman coming in the morning. Not a night for partying. I'll do my homework and drive back (no, I don't usually drive, unless bringing props).
Speaking of props, I finished up at Glencoe today, where I face whether to hammer down as their best ever animation teacher, when that's not what I know, but am learning. I've got a new Medium story on that.
I won't blog during Steve's talk. You might find out what I learned about blood pressure by reading elsewhere. I recently had an echo of my chest in followup to the year-ago PE. They've got me on a stable regime so at the moment future doc visits are spaced wide apart. That's a measure of current health I suppose.
Actually, now that the night is over, let me do a recall of Steve's talk from memory without even looking at the slides I photographed (still in the camera, not uploaded yet).
He took us through the various ways the body naturally self regulates, and what it self regulates. The rate at which the kidneys clean the blood governs glandular hormonal responses which medications may inhibit or block, should medical science consider that a prudent move. The adrenal glands, as well as various cells in the heart, take their signals from chemical pathways.
The body takes blood pressure seriously, as should we. He talked about how it fluctuates throughout the day and how it's important to replicate measuring conditions, down to the equipment, if wanting to get an accurate sense of change over time. This is not super easy.
The talk dove pretty deeply into the structure and function of many organs, and provided some history as to the concept's evolution. By convention we measure at the arm, though other body parts may be used. Use a scale factor. Newer devices are getting continuous readings from less bulky devices.
