Saturday evening, I bumped my head getting out of my wheelchair. It was no big deal, but my aide at the time, who seems to be a nervous young woman, reported it to the nurse, who came along to check it out. Since then, they've taken my blood pressure every day.
It wa just a bump-- no blood, no pain after the event-- but they monitor my condition, anyway. There's no reason to think anything is wrong, but we still do the blood pressure thing. Yes, there is some small chance a bad thing could result from the bump, but the main reason for the follow up is to legally protect the nursing home. It's called defensive medicine. The doctor is obliged to order things to build a record to defend the company against possible legal action. Such medicine, ultimately directed by lawyers, results in performing unnecssaey procedures, and drives efforts at tort reform in the medical practice area.
It's true, having my blood pressure taken is merely an annoyance, nothing more. It's also true, I suppose, that it might actually be medically useful, but life is finally about the odds. The odds are these tests are for legal reasons, not medical ones.
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