The first thing that tipped them off was looking at the blood vessels in my eyes, not measuring my BP. This is an absolutely routine part of an eye exam, so I wasn't stressed out or anything like that while they were doing it.

High blood pressure will not always be accompanied by easily detectable symptoms like audible thumping. There's a reason why it's called "the silent killer." (See: https://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/index.htm).

An interesting thing I heard from my dentist and my optometrist is that dentists and optometrists often diagnose (or successfully refer for) a fairly wide variety of conditions that manifest as symptoms visible in the gums and eyes. A lot of stuff that can go wrong in the body can apparently mess up your gums or eyes in a way that an expert can notice.

Also, people who have excellent vision can still benefit from optometrist exams because they can catch early stages of eye problems, and even other kinds of medical problems.

I've been seeing the same doctor for nearly two decades. She does the same routine every time she takes my blood pressure: "So, (puts on cuff), do you have any trips planned? Anything fun coming up? (pump pump pump)".

I laugh inside at how consistent she is, so I guess it still works on me.

I'm similar, every time I get my BP taken, I have to ask them to take it one more time, because the sounds and feeling of the machine make me very anxious. The results are usually worrying the first time, and then perfectly normal on the second take.

In this case the solution is to measure your BP yourself at home.