Diagnosis Doesn't Slow Her Down
Julia Handles the Pressure
Looking at Julia Santoro, you’d never know she has high blood pressure.
The 11-year-old Pierce Township girl is fit and active, excels at playing the flute and piano, and gets good grades. Yet she was diagnosed at birth with hypertension.
“When Julia was born early, the doctor told us her blood pressure was high and would come down,” says her mom, Kathy, a dietitian at Cincinnati Children’s. “At 5 months, we were referred to the Hypertension Clinic at Cincinnati Children’s. We’ve been coming back every three months.”
With no family history of hypertension, a series of diagnostic tests failed to discover a cause for Julia’s condition.
“When she was 5 years old, the clinic staff helped my husband and me realize that Julia wasn’t going to outgrow this,” Kathy says. “Instead, we needed to focus on helping her manage hypertension for the rest of her life.”
As a health care professional herself, Kathy was well aware of the longterm effects of uncontrolled hypertension: kidney problems, an enlarged heart and more.
“I’m so thankful we caught this when Julia was young,” she says. “We definitely went through an accepting process. It’s a hard thing
to understand, because she looks and acts like a regular kid with no medical problems.”
Kathy’s advice for other families coping with hypertension:
Don’t skip your child’s doctor or clinic appointments.
“You don’t see hypertension, and your child can’t feel it, so it’s easy to think it’s really not there. The Hypertension Clinic staff have been a great source of information for us and provide wonderful care.”Be consistent with medications.
Julia’s blood pressure is well-controlled with two medications. “Julia takes her medications around the same time every morning. We’re very exact about not missing a dose.”
High blood pressure is just something Julia, a sixth-grader at Amelia Middle School, has learned to live with. The good news is that she can go on with life as usual, as long as she takes her medicine, Julia says.
When her friends ask about her condition, “I tell them it’s nothing that can hurt them,” Julia says, “and I can fix it.”
Part of the solution, her mom says, was working with doctors to find the right medications as Julia grew. And along the way, Julia became close with the hospital staff and comfortable dealing with her hypertension.
“This is controllable and manageable,” her mom says. “We’re so blessed.”
To learn how to help your child reduce their high blood pressure.
