Good news and bad news
Ok the good news first. I don’t have to worry about my blood pressure. Apparently my glucose meter got the date wrong a thought this week was April Fools day. Well, either that or it’s really old and is losing its mind. My Blood sugar levels were perfectly normal when taken on a properly functioning machine. The old machine has been given the old heave-ho into the nearest trash receptacle. Hooray!!
I have also been given new medication for my ulcer with the threat promise that if it doesn’t fix me I will get to have a camera stuffed down my throat and all my innards video taped. I’m really hoping the new meds work!
The Doc also gave me some nifty new migraine meds to try out and since my head is very kind and accommodating, it produced a migraine last night just for me to practice on. I immediately passed out but woke up at 2am headache free so I guess we’ll hold off judgment on that med for now. I’m sure to have plenty of opportunities to try it out before we head out to Ethiopia.
I started my series of shots for the trip too. While I’m not sure that getting stuck in the arm 3 times with sharp instruments can be counted as “good news”, it is nice to get some of this stuff out of the way so we don’t have to worry about it at the last minute. I’ll have to go back in a month to get my second Hep B shot and then in 6 months for the final Hep A and Hep B. That’s it. Unless something unforeseen comes up that requires us to head outside of Addis, I’m not got to get any other vaccinations.
Now the bad news…. Since the Doc was worried about my blood sugars she ordered several tests done including a non-fasting cholesterol test. Turns out that my cholesterol may be in FAA violation for being so high that it’s a flight hazard to passing aircraft. My doc almost had a heart attack from the cholesterol contamination from reading the results of the test. I’m not shocked. Extremely high cholesterol runs in my family, BIG TIME. My mom usually hovers in the high 200’s while my grandmother, aunt, and several uncles like to hang with me in the 330 range. What’s interesting is that although we are all in the mile high cholesterol club (not nearly as fun as the other mile high club); no one in my family suffers from heart disease.
Once the Doc got her jaw off the floor she recommended I go visit the dietitian to work on getting that number down. If I can't get it much lower with diet (fun) and exercise (fun fun) then she wants to put me on cholesterol lowering medication (yuck!). I am now keeping a journal of everything I put into my mouth, including any cheerios swiped from the kids or “tastes tests” as I cook, so I can bore the dietitian to tears next week. Interestingly, I seem to eat much better when I have to be accountable to someone else...I don’t want a perfect stranger to know I ate that!
So, there you go. Not as bad as I though but not wonderful either. I’ll keep you posted on what the evil woman who hates all food that tastes good dietitian says.
Referral Picture 6/21/07
1 comments:
Mine was high too, although not as high as yours, but it doesn't run in my family. Anyway, we switched to using Promise TakeControl butter/margarine/what ever you call it and mine went way down to a normal level:). That is really about the only change I made...except I did also quit going through the Whataburger drive-thru for an egg, cheese and bacon sandwich in the mornings. That might have helped a little too...but really, I think most of it was this butter. It is "proven to significantly lower cholesterol". Of course, if you are not normally a butter eater, it probably won't help much. I eat lots of it on toast and veggies:). Good luck!
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