When I was 9 years old, I found out that I was not like everyone else. I was in Shop N’ Save with my dad and my sister and we ended up walking past a blood pressure machine. My sister and I wanted to play with it, and usually my dad wouldn’t let us, but that day he ended up saying yes. We went back to the machine. My sister went first and then it was my turn. I sat down, put my arm in the cuff, pushed the green button, and the the cuff started filling up with air. I was sitting there with the cuff squeezing my arm, then loosening until it made a ticking sound. My dad looked at the machine and then at the chart and got this worried look on his face, so we hurried up, finished shopping, and we went home.
When we go home, my sister and I went to our room and closed the door to play with our toys. My dad brought the groceries in, passed our room, went
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I was put on the bed by my dad, while my mom and sister sat in the chairs and my dad stood next to the bed by me. The nurse walked in after us and asked what the problem was, and my dad said to hurry and check my blood, so the nurse left the room to get the right blood pressure cuff. She came back and wrapped my arm with the cuff, hooked a ball to it, pulled out her stethoscope, began to listen to my pulse, and started squeezing the ball connected to the cuff while watching the time. When she was done, she had the same worried look on her face as my dad had. She said it was super high and that a kid my age shouldn’t have a blood pressure as high as 220/180. At that moment, everything changed for my family and me. There were several doctors appointments, blood draws, MRI scans, traveling across the country multiple times, and a traumatic 16 hour surgery, which left me with little memory of my childhood. This journey has made me very weak, but very strong. Although I have seen the face of death, it has not killed my