Curse you, Big Pharma!

I recently ... well, actually it was well over a month ago, had a bout with what I thought was a flu-like thing... only when the fever broke, the rest of the symptoms just lingered. For weeks. I finally went to see my Dr about it. After the XRays showed no signs of pneumonia, she wrote out reams of RX for a shopping bag full of drugs. My pharmacist was so pleased he gave me this complimentary gift pack filled with skincare products. (You don't think he was trying to tell me something, do you? ...Ssshh, neurotic voice!). Back on topic. I've been popping the antibiotics & huffing the prescription inhalers, and while I no longer sound like Darth Vader when I breathe, my uvula feels like it's the size of a cucumber, and I can barely talk or swallow. When I finally looked up my insanely expensive prescription inhalers online, the first side effect listed was "horseness"! I need my voice for my work. This is not good. Right now my sound ranges from wind in the trees to a rattling metal door on an old shed. I am not happy. Some other interesting side effects - insomnia (not quite true - I get about 2 hours a night), and elevated Blood Pressure - which when I read that & checked at the supermarket was 160/110. =o Fortunately my arteries must be made of kevlar, because I haven't popped one yet. ...Yet. ;)
Which gets me to my second topic - meditation & self hypnosis. My BP was always a bit high. It runs in both sides of my family. Previous doctors have handed me shopping bags - seriously - big Macy's like shopping bags with little cardboard handles... FILLED with "samples" of blood pressure pills. Now I'm not anti-drug. It's just never my first resort. I asked one doctor if losing some weight and regular exercise - walks & bikerides - would help. He said, "yeah that would probably work too". I finally found an awesome MD who has ...a broader perspective... when she found my BP was high, she suggested walks and deftly mentioned altering my diet ...suggesting low fat foods ...but never directly mentioning dropping weight :) She also suggested using relaxation techniques to lower my BP. She let me try a biofeedback machine in her office & my BP dropped about 15 points in 10 minutes. That's when I started to dabble in the meditation/self-hypnosis stuff. It all seems like "directed focus" ...distractions are squelched & the attention lasers in on a particular thing... breathing, heartrate, whatever. It seems to me that the only difference between meditation and (self) hypnosis is that hypnosis uses the focused state as a means to a goal, where with meditation the state is it's own point.
My point - finally. Still huffing the meds until the prescription runs out in 8 more days. Learning to "zone" thru meditation/self-hypnosis I have my BP down to 130/80. And once (I pray) the voice comes back, my stress level should be waay down & I won't have to work so hard - in an intensely relaxed way - to keep my BP down to normal human levels.
OMG - sorry to be so verbose. I think because I can't speak in my day to day (at least without scaring children and inadvertantly summoning demons) it's kind of pouring out here like a burst dam....(n) Oh well. It's out there. I'm not taking any of it back. I promise to be more succinct - and I hope interesting - in the future.
I can't believe you're still reading this :)