Catching Up

So, this year started with a really stressful promise. Jobs were going to be crazy and demanding (when are they not?!), family will have drama and we shall have obligations towards all. We kind of knew, right from the get-go of 2013, that we will have a busy year, not so much focused on “us”, as much as focused on what we needed to do for … others, family, our jobs.

And for once, “things went according to plan”, although … a very fast and steady and bumpy kind of plan. NO complaints, really: we’re both here, and we’re still standing – so, we made it at the other end, at least so far.

I knew, though, if I was going to turn a new leaf in my personal life, and mostly in my health life, that I needed to “tweak” my job, first. 12-14 hour days of non stop working and then some, going to bed around midnight every night were not going to cut it, if I were to survive past my 40^th birthday (in a couple of years).

My first blood tests of the year (sometime in March) were not good – but when are they, really?! I figured, it’s too close to The Holidays, etc, and that’s why I was doing poorly – also, for the first time ever, my triglycerides were high – which surely points to poor eating, but, again: that’s The Holidays for you, and being cooped up between 4 walls for 6 months in The Rockies with no moving opportunities. Anyhoo – I found “excuses”.

I didn’t do much to fix them, though. I continued to eat badly, telling myself that well, I am on meds which should take care of one bad meal here and there, and diet doesn’t really have that much of an effect on me. The one thing that bugged me constantly was that I didn’t make time to exercise. Even during the summer – we used to walk almost after every dinner. But not this summer. Busy with life, and trips with friends, and preparing for trips, and preparing for guests, and gardening a bit, and being in between jobs, we made no time for our evening walks! The whole summer, I am not sure we walked 5 times this year!

My husband had surgery this year, too – which kept us off the road, and on comfort food for a couple of months or so. And the bad (health) news kept on piling on!  I developed a new pain. I have had a nasty, nagging pain under my right ribs almost the entire year so far. It hurts so bad sometimes, it’s hard to breathe. It hurts a lot when I walk briskly, but it hurts … any ol’ time. When I eat, or when am hungry. When I am stressed, or rushing around. When I just sit and read. It just hurts! Sometimes the pain is just dull – just enough to let me know it’s there, and sometimes, it radiates all over my stomach, and all the way into my spine!

Sure, I have been worried – I have written about this before.

But nothing has been done yet to calm this pain. Basically, we still don’t know what causes it. The doctor I started this year with (the one I have had for the past 3 years, here, in my “new” state) ordered a CT Scan of my abdomen which didn’t show anything in my liver, stomach or gallbladder. The only thing that it did show was an aged, atherosclerotic aorta inside my abdomen, but then again “it’s normal” for my diagnosis.

So, my doctor sort of shelved it. Which is reason number one why I looked for a new doctor. Reason number two was that she has kept switching nurses, every 6 months. I never found one she had that I liked or that knew what she was doing, really, so it made me wonder why does she get all the bad nurses in town?! I stopped wondering at my last appointment with her, when yet another new nurse (a guy, this time, who didn’t look older than 12) wrote my weight in the system as 213! I am 121!! At that time, I was pretty set on leaving her care!

Which I did. Finally, this month, I got a new doctor. Like every new doctor, he wants to run a million tests, as he is blown away at all my diagnoses and my bad numbers. The last blood tests he drew showed an LDL of 331 and an HDL of 38 (probably the lowest it’s been). He didn’t run the triglycerides, because I was not fasting. Liver and kidneys (he said kidneys can get damaged by Lipitor just as much as the liver, so he will check both functions from now on – which  was news to me) were good. My Vitamin D is again, extremely low, at 18. The normal range starts at 30. I don’t want to take the large, horse pill of 50,000 a week again, but I will look into some daily supplements nonetheless. It’s a bummer that vitamin D is not found in many foods, so I can’t quite do it “naturally”.  

I live in a state that, for some reason, is the top state of vitamin D deficiency in all people – which is bizarre, because we get sunshine more than 300 days or more a year. Anyway – one more thing.

The new doctor will also do a PLAC test. For more information on this (newer) test, please visit their site. I want to say that my NC nutritionist did this test before, but it would be good to have an updated result to find out what kind of risk am I of heart disease and stroke. As I have said before, based solely on my history, no one in my family has had a hear attack – but lots of them had strokes. And since I have not felt great this year, once again, it would be good to just know what risk I am up against, if it can be quantified in a number.

He will also do an endoscopy on my stomach, to rule out an ulcer for my right hand side pain, under my ribs, and if that clears me from ulcers, he’ll go on with a gallbladder test, to see if maybe the pain is from there. Right now, they are guessing, but at least it’s not a dead end, like I felt with my former doctor.

The reason I am boring you all with these extra details is that I have asked him why he thinks I would have ulcers, or my gallbladder would be messed up. His answer came back promptly: “probably side effects to your medication” – which has been the story of my life, yet again: dry skin – my medication; GERD – my medication, etc.

So, there I am, back in the saddle of more tests. He also ordered an MRI of the back of my neck, as I am thinking of getting my lipoma removed, but since it’s been so painful lately, he needs to find out what other nerves and maybe where on the spine the lipoma is touching upon. I absolutely hate surgeries, but I will brave up for this one, as my neck has been very sore from it lately. Especially with winter coming and having heavier coats around and on my shoulders, it would be nice to not feel so much pain every time I wear one.

I am also watching carefully and closely what I eat, although I will “cheat” around The Holidays, I am sure. But I will try to add some more exercise into my life as well, now that I am back to an 8 hour work day. The reason I also simply must exercise more is that I have gained weight this year. And I cannot stand myself! On the large scale of things, it’s not a ton of weight (about 6 lbs) but at 4’11”, I feel it in every move. And I don’t want it to be more, either.

I have been using the Calorie Count  tools, not so much to watch my calories, but to really watch my fats (cholesterol, saturated and proteins). It’s a great way to get an idea of how much you’re eating every day, I found.

Doing a simple search on google, I found several sites that recommend a total intake of 200 mg of cholesterol a day for a person with a hypercholesterolemia and heart disease. From keeping a log of what I eat for the past week, I can tell you some days I eat 0mg of cholesterol, some days 70mg, and some as high as 270! Those are the days when I eat out, and I have little control over what there is in my food. Fortunately, those days are rare.  

One thing is for sure: there is no fooling around and no more postponing being healthy and taking care of my body and mostly of my blood vessels. The weight gain, the low HDL, the new deposits in my stomach aorta, and in the ever increasing lipoma, as well as more mini-lipomas on the front of my eyes (which an eye exam revealed) all spell worse and worse health. And one finds out that by  the inevitable growing old, there are no more “outs” left. Any little bit in changing my lifestyle will help, I hope. But especially focus and mindfulness.

I hope everyone has healthy and happy Holidays, and I will try to update the blog as soon as I find out more results to my tests and I start feeling a bit better, too – hopefully!