Happy and Healthy

I went to the doctor today. It’s one of those appointments where they want to check your blood and see what’s going on inside. They make me come 3 times a year. It seems as though I’ve been to the doctor quite a bit recently but this one was just a “look under the hood”. I normally don’t like these appointments but I do them because I want to make sure everything’s okay. You know how it is, when you get to be my age stuff starts going wrong with your body.

I always go get my blood drawn a week or so before my appointment. That way the doctor can yell at me with evidence. Honestly, I hate getting a phone call after the fact telling me to “keep up the good work”. I want to know details. So I get my bloodwork done before my appointment so he’ll have the report in hand when he comes into the room.

You don’t know how he will greet you. Sometimes he makes fun of me by calling me “the old gray mare” or “grandma” or something like that. I always have to remind him that he’s not too far behind me. I was ready for it. I was going to inform him that I knew my numbers were not good but I’d do what I could to get them in check. Usually my numbers are okay but he always finds that one thing that he wants to mess with me about. Then he hands me all of these hand-outs about eliminating sugar or lowering my cholesterol or losing weight. I was expecting it.

But it didn’t come.

He came in whistling about my lab results. He showed me my numbers (I didn’t have my glasses on so I couldn’t read what he was showing me). But he told me to pay special attention to the “flag” column. That highlighted the numbers that were not good. I didn’t see any flags on the first page. He flipped it over and there were no flags on the second page either. I put my glasses on.

First he tells me that I’ve lost 10 pounds in 4 months. I have been dieting and I think I’ve actually lost 16 but a loss on his scales is impressive. He was shocked.

My cholesterol was 156. I wasn’t impressed. I take cholesterol medicine. That just tells me that the medicine works. But he was really impressed. He went on to tell me that my LDL was 85 and my HDL was 55. That is really good, I think. He told me that my LDL/HDL ratio was 1.5. He said that I was in the lowest quarter of average risk of heart disease. I don’t really understand cholesterol other than you want it to be good. Heart disease I understand. I have had that in my family. So, I was pretty psyched that I have a low risk of heart disease. I want to keep it that way.

My sugar was 82. This meant something to me. Anything over 100 is pre-diabetic or diabetic. I have diabetes in my family. Bad. And I love sugar. Really love sugar. And I love carbs. So, for my sugar to be so low right after Easter is HUGE. My sugar has been teetering in the high 90’s, low 100’s for the last couple of years. I know that diabetes is in my future. But I also know that I control that. So, if I can stay away from sugar and carbs, etc., then I don’t have that to worry about, right? And if I can watch my weight and maybe exercise a little then that holds it at bay. I don’t want to end up with diabetes. I have seen what that does to a body. So, at 82, I’m no where near the diabetes indicator. That is something to be excited and impressed about.

All the other things that they test for were all in the range of normal. There were no flags. There were no concerns.

I’ve got health issues. I have arthritis that makes me hurt, a lot. I have an inner ear thing going on. Those things are inconvenient but not necessarily life threatening. And I am old. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. But, guess what? It looks like I’m going to get older.

He asked me what I was doing. I hate to say that I’m on a diet because I really don’t feel like I’m on a diet. I have changed the way I eat though and I am making better choices in the way I eat. I’m following a nutrition program that has helped immensely. I eat every 2-3 hours, which I actually enjoy, when I remember. All of those stomach issues I was having have calmed way down and I attribute it to eating small meals more frequently. I eat 5 or 6 times a day. I don’t eat deep-fried foods without giving it considerable thought. I try very hard to stay away from cookies and cakes and pies and candies. I drink 8 glasses of water a day. He told me whatever I was doing to keep it up.

I made up my mind when I started this program that I was going to take it slow. I didn’t want to lose weight too fast because I know me; I’ll put it back on just as fast. I wanted to change my mindset and my habits and I think I’ve been doing that. I’m not sure when I started this journey (within the last 6 months) but I plan on continuing the journey for the next 20 or 30 years. I will say this, I’m down 2 sizes in my jeans.

Maybe the way I’m going I’ll outlive my doctor. He told me that my numbers looked better than his, and he ran the Boston Marathon last year. Yeah, I’m not going to do that. But one thing he did before he left the room was to hug me and told me to keep it up. I about passed out.