Of blood pressure and other medical matters

While I was living in Berlin for about ten months, I had cause to go to two German physicians — both women. Fortunately, my medical matters turned out to be minor, although my eye scare had me concerned for a while. Besides the Augenärztin (ophthalmologist), I also saw a general practitioner lady MD, to whom I was referred by an Apotheker when I had my U.S. prescription problem (a long story for later). Between the two doctors, I visited their offices over a dozen times over a period of months.

I could write a book about the entire German medical thing compared to the U.S., but the one thing I want to discuss now is Blutdruck. Not once in all my times at the doctor — not the first visit, in between, or the last — did either doctor ever measure my blood pressure. Not a single time. In the U.S., you can’t get out of a doctor’s office without this blood-pressure ritual. READ MORE »