Matt was sick for months with what he and doctors thought was a cold or some kind of infection.  He didn't feel well and had a lot of fluid in his chest.  He went to the doctor on two different occasions during this time and both times was prescribed antibiotics.  It didn't go away.  The worst part is that on both occasions the health care providers took his blood pressure (which was 200 or more) and commented on how high it was.  Judging by the way it was shrugged off, how was he to know it was really serious?  Matt now knows that with blood pressure that high for so long, he's lucky he didn't suffer any of the other serious complications.  As if kidney failure isn't severe enough, the damage to his blood vessels could've caused a heart attack, stroke, aneurysm, vision loss, and the list goes on.  

Health care providers do amazing work. However, we have to keep in mind that they are human and things can be overlooked.  Even with all of the knowledge they possess, sometimes they fail to educate their patients and provide them with necessary information. We have to pay attention to our bodily cues, ask questions and be informed about our own health because we know our bodies best and know when something isn't right.  We have to take responsibility and work with doctors to be healthy, not put all of our trust in them and expect them to investigate our concerns if we don't ask about them.  It just doesn't work that way.