HEALTH
The Morning My Garden Almost Became My Final Resting Place
Last update: 22 Oct﹒
3
2240
4 min
My wife jokes that I used to treat my tomato plants better than my own body. She's not wrong.
I remember the date because it was the morning I'd planned to plant my prized Cherokee Purple tomato seedlings.
I'd been nurturing them under grow lights in our basement since February, checking on them every morning like they were newborn babies.
The irony doesn't escape me now – I monitored those plants' pH levels more carefully than my own health.
I was on my knees in the garden, carefully spacing out the seedlings, when the first warning shot fired. The spring sunshine suddenly felt like a spotlight burning into my skull.
My vision narrowed to a pinpoint, like looking through the wrong end of binoculars. But stubbornly, I kept working.
After all, there was a frost warning for that night, and those seedlings needed to be in the ground and covered.
My wife Nancy found me face-down in the mulch twenty minutes later, my precious tomato plants scattered around me like fallen soldiers.
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"Mr. Anderson, We Need to Talk About Your Numbers"
The ER wasn't busy that morning – lucky for me. As the nurse took my vitals, her expression shifted from professional calm to poorly concealed concern.
"How long have you been having headaches?" she asked, while the blood pressure monitor hummed.
"Everyone has headaches," I replied, trying to sound casual while my heart hammered in my chest.
"It's part of getting older, right?"
Wrong. The numbers on the monitor told a different story: 196/118.
Dr. Patterson didn't sugarcoat it.
"These numbers," she said, pointing to my chart, "are what we call a hypertensive crisis. You're basically a walking time bomb."
A Construction Manager Who Couldn't Manage His Own Foundation
For thirty years, I'd managed construction projects worth millions, inspecting every foundation, checking every support beam, ensuring every structure was sound. Yet I'd completely neglected the most important foundation of all – my own.
My father died of a heart attack at 60. His father at 55. I knew the family history, but somehow convinced myself I was different.
I exercised... occasionally. I ate salads... sometimes.
I even switched to light beer during the week. I thought that was enough.
My grandson Tommy's Little League championship game was in three weeks. He'd made me promise to be there.
Looking at my numbers, Dr. Patterson couldn't guarantee I'd make it if something didn't change dramatically.
When Ego Gets the Best of You
The hospital stay should have been my wake-up call. But truthfully? The real moment came two weeks later, during a family dinner.
My daughter was showing everyone photos from Tommy's recent baseball practice. There I was in the background, sitting in my lawn chair, and I hardly recognized myself.
My face was red, puffy, strained.
I looked exactly like my father did in photos from the months before we lost him.
That night, I couldn't sleep. I downloaded every heart health app I could find. Most were either too complicated or too simplistic.
One wanted me to buy a $300 monitoring device. Another just reminded me to "breathe deeply" every hour.
The Game-Changer (Literally)
It was actually Tommy who introduced me to Cardi Mate. He'd seen an ad while watching videos on his phone. "Look, Grandpa," he said, showing me his screen. "This app can see your heart through your phone. That's like superhero stuff!"
I was skeptical. My construction background taught me that anything worth measuring needs proper tools. But I was also desperate.
Tommy's championship game was getting closer, and my blood pressure readings were still all over the place.
The first surprise was how simple it was. No extra equipment needed – just my phone and something called PPG technology. It measures the tiny color changes in your skin that indicate blood flow. The same technology hospitals use, right in my pocket.
Learning a New Blueprint for Health
The first week with Cardi Mate was an eye-opener. Like any good manager, I decided to treat this as a new job site – one where I was both the contractor and the building being renovated. The app became my daily inspection checklist.
Every morning, I'd find a quiet corner in my home office, rest my finger on my phone's camera, and let the app do its work.
The readings were fascinating – not just my heart rate, but something called heart rate variability (HRV). The app explained that HRV is like a window into how your body handles stress.
High variability is good; it means your body can adapt to changes easily. Mine, unsurprisingly, was poor at first.
But what really caught my attention was the arrhythmia detection feature. One morning, the app noticed some irregular rhythms I'd never felt.
When I showed the data to my doctor at my next appointment, she adjusted my medication immediately. "This kind of detailed monitoring," she said, "is exactly what we need to get your treatment right."
Getting Things In Motion
The app didn't just collect data – it helped me understand it. Like any good apprentice learning the trades, I started seeing patterns everywhere.
The "Health Insights" section became my daily reading material, replacing the morning paper with my coffee.
I discovered that my blood pressure typically spiked around 10 AM during project meetings.
The app suggested trying its five-minute meditation session before these meetings. I felt ridiculous at first, sitting in my truck outside the construction site, following the guided breathing exercises.
But after a few weeks, those mid-morning spikes started to level out.
Rebuilding from the Ground Up
Nancy noticed the changes first. "Your face isn't as red," she mentioned one evening, about three weeks into using the app.
She was right. The daily logs in Cardi Mate showed my average blood pressure had dropped from the scary 190s/110s to more manageable 150s/90s.
Still not perfect, but heading in the right direction.
The app synced with my new Apple Watch (a surprise gift from my kids who were thrilled to see me finally taking my health seriously), which added another layer of insights. Now I could see how different activities affected my heart throughout the day.
Climbing scaffolding? Spike. Walking the site perimeter? Much better.
Morning coffee? Maybe time to switch to half-caf.
One feature I particularly appreciated was the ability to log my blood pressure readings from my doctor's office visits.
The app would compare these professional readings with its own measurements, helping ensure accuracy. It also let me track my blood oxygen levels – something I'd never paid attention to before but became fascinated with during my recovery.
The Unexpected Side Effects
As my numbers improved, something else started happening. Those headaches that I'd blamed on job stress? Gone.
The constant fatigue that I'd attributed to age? Lifted.
I even started sleeping better, which my watch’s sleep tracking system confirmed.
But the most surprising change was in my work. With better health came better focus. I found myself making clearer decisions, managing stress more effectively, and even handling difficult clients with more patience.
My crew noticed too. "Boss, you're different," my foreman Mike said one day. "Good different."
The Championship Game and Beyond
Tommy's team lost the championship game. Unfortunate, but these things happen. But I was there, cheering from the bleachers, my phone in my pocket showing a healthy hate rate of 75bpm.
I even shared the app with another grandfather who mentioned his own blood pressure struggles.
His eyes lit up when I showed him how simple it was to use – no complex equipment, no confusing charts, just straightforward information when you need it.
Every morning, I check my numbers on Cardi Mate, log my blood pressure, and review my patterns.
Your Foundation Matters
Here's what I wish I'd known earlier: Taking care of your heart doesn't have to mean completely changing your life.
Sometimes, it just means having the right tools and information at the right time.
Those tomato plants? They survived my fall and produced the best crop I've ever had.
Turns out, they just needed the right care and attention – just like my heart. And now, thanks to modern technology that fits in my pocket, giving that care is easier than ever.
The other day, Tommy asked me if I'd be around to see him play high school baseball.
Looking at my latest health report on Cardi Mate, with its steady green indicators and positive trends, I could honestly tell him, "You bet I will be, kiddo. Front row, every game."
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Comments (3)
Michael O'Brien, 61, Portland
03 November, 2024 at 6:14 PM
Reading about him checking his tomato plants' pH hit home – I used to test the water quality in my koi pond daily but couldn't tell you my last blood pressure reading. Been using Cardi Mate for 4 months now, and for the first time in years, my doctor's actually smiling during checkups.
Lesley Dawson, 55, Austin
24 October, 2024 at 2:01 PM
The part about the family photos got me. Saw myself in pictures from my son’s birthday and didn't recognize that tired, red-faced woman. Found Cardi Mate through this article two months ago. Yesterday, I ran a 5K with my daughter – something I never thought I'd do again.
David Maccles, 59, Seattle
22 October, 2024 at 11:52 AM
As another guy in construction, this story really connected. We spend all day ensuring everything's up to code, but our own health? That's another story.
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