I didn't either till I had a stroke from high BP of course it wasn't so much the BP but how fast the clowns brought it down, dr said its a wonder it didn't kill me.They sent me home to take Lisenpril ans bp took a dive and I stroked out. I take half BP HTZ duritic and half aspirin. now.
I remember being warned about stroke, and that my blood pressure was sky-high. Drugs were offered, I declined, started eating better and hopped on my bike and started cycling more. That was in the early 90s, so far so good.
I should have done more but I was in good shape for my age, I was weeding the garden when I came inside and had stoke. I danced a lot plus did lots of work around the property and house. But I didn't watch my BP. Then the liars said they wanted to check my heart and put me out and II woke up with 2 stents. I don't like or trust most doctors at all. But then I have to say they have saved my life on a few occations too. So guess I just have to be more involved like I use to be.
There may not have been any more than you could do, who can say - strokes are tricky unpredictable things, but your experience certainly sucks. I've never had an operation at this point, and plan to keep it that way. I took a notion once and watched my BP readings for a short while, then realized that doing so was focusing on it and probably making it more likely that I'd get high readings, so I stopped doing it. Ignoring it altogether just made better sense for me, and I never took another reading, lol. Stroke runs in my family, both sides, but I figure we all have to die of something and if it happens it happens. Basically all I'm doing is living life the way our grandparents lived life. You lived without intervention then died of whatever came along. Sure they generally died younger but they didn't linger, and that's the part I like.
I want to add that my way is weird, likely not sane, and definitely should not be seen as advice. Just meant it as an explanation as to why being old comes easy for me: because I approach it with the same contrarian eejit mindset that I had in my 20s, lol. It's not good, it's not bad, it's just who I am.