[Intro — spoken]

Diane was a nurse for twenty-eight years...

She took everyone else's blood pressure every single day...

She just never took her own...

[Verse 1]

Diane rushed through every shift — no time to sit down,

Forty patients on the floor — busiest nurse in town,

Skipped her lunch break every day — coffee kept her going,

Never noticed her own numbers — never got them showing.

Annual checkup came around — doctor took the cuff,

One-sixty over ninety-five — doctor said enough,

Diane said that can't be right — I feel completely fine,

Doctor said that's exactly what makes this the silent kind.

[Pre-Chorus]

Diane's mom had a stroke at sixty — dad had one at two,

Carried extra weight since having kids — that much was true,

Stress was always with her — running high,

Salt on everything she ate — never wondered why.

[Chorus]

Diane's numbers are too high — but Diane feels okay,

That's the thing about this — it sneaks up every day,

Years of pressure on the vessels — wearing them away,

Heart and brain and kidneys — paying the price someday.

[Verse 2]

Doctor said the blood vessels are like garden hoses old,

Too much pressure for too long — makes them stiff and cold,

Heart has to push harder — muscle gets too thick,

Brain is at risk of bleeding — kidneys getting sick.

Checked the back of Diane's eyes — vessels showing change,

Urine had some protein — kidneys in the range,

Heart trace showed the muscle thickening on the left,

These were all the signs of pressure — silently bereft.

[Bridge]

Doctor said let's start with changes — food and exercise,

Cut the sodium to two grams daily — open up your eyes,

Thirty minutes walking — five days every week,

Lose ten pounds — the numbers change — that's what we seek.

Three months later — still too high — medication time,

Diane the nurse became Diane the patient — quite the climb,

Takes her pill each morning — checks her pressure every week,

One-thirty over eighty — that's the number that we seek.

[Outro]

Diane checks her pressure now — before she checks the clock,

Logs it in a little book — every morning on the block,

Ironic that the nurse who cared for everyone around,

Finally cared enough for herself — and look what she found.

“Diane’s Story”