I expose myself with the results from my physical and blood work

[chrisinhouston]

So I went to my new doctor to have a physical since I need refills on my BP meds which were running out after a year and I figured he would want to check to see if I do in fact have a heart beat before prescribing anything. This Dr. is the first general kind of family Dr. I have had in some years, I saw him for the first time last fall just to see if I liked him and he passed the test. I was seeing a cardiologist for the BP but got tired of him because he always kept you waiting for an hour or more and he liked to share his political views which didn't match mine, he liked to go on and on about how Obamacare was going to put him out of business. He also wanted me to have a nuclear stress test just to see what it said even though there is no history of heart disease in my family. I guess if my insurance would pay him that was somehow better than the insurance under Obamacare.

So the new Dr. sees me and gives me a pretty easy physical. His nurse did my vitals and recorded them. He went over my medications and I explained I see a pulmonary Dr. once a year for my asthma issues and he handles those meds and also that I see my Urologist for the male plumbing issues, he said that was fine with him. He looked in my ears and listened to me breathing and my heartbeat with his stethoscope and pushed on my stomach as I lay on my back. No other things like an EKG or anything else, he said my heart beat was a bit fast but I rode my bike to his office so maybe that was why, he wasn't too concerned. Then he said I should have a booster Tetanus shot and also thought I should have the pneumonia vaccine because of my asthma. He also wanted to do blood work, the usual panel and a Lipid test as well as a blood sugar test that averages the last 3 months called an AC1 test.

My arms hurt from the vaccines, I forgot about how they do that. Feels like someone punched me real good.

The blood tests came back and overall are good, they have a website I could go download them at which is nice. My cholesterol is pretty good, a bit high overall but both the HDL and LDL were really good. I guess all that steel cut oatmeal pays off.

My fasting sugar level was higher than I would like at 157 but that's about where it was a year ago when I had blood work. They say the preferred range is 65-99. I think the extra pounds I carry probably pushes it up. Everything else looked good according to what they recommend for the normal range and what my numbers were. And the AC1 test also showed a tad over normal, the standard range is 4.8-5.6% and I am at 5.9%.

So he gave me the refill for the entire year which what I had hoped for. He said he felt ok with the blood work numbers and just to keep exercising and loose some weight and avoid the foods that I already seem to avoid.

I had hoped the numbers would have been better, especially with all the walking I do. I do aerobic walking about 6 out of 7 days in a week and usually do 4.5 miles of that. I wear a pedometer and I try to get over 12000 steps per day which is like 6 miles. Oh well, summer is here so I will be riding a bike and swimming more. On the other hand I'm 58 and don't have any great wishes to live to be 100. If I hit 75 I'll be happy. To many memories of my parents in their final years to make me want to be in my 80's or 90's.

[glatt]

Sounds pretty similar to my story. But getting older is better than the alternative.

My numbers are all good, except for fasting blood sugar which is usually around 115 or so. I forget the exact number, but in the pre-diabetes range. I'm not carrying any extra weight at all though. In fact as I try to eat only healthy foods, I've been worried about losing too much weight. I'm about 140 and 6'2". I'd rather be 160.

My AC1 are actually in the good range, which is confusing, and when I have a non-fasting blood sugar test done, they are actually in the "normal" range. Weird how the blood sugar goes up when I'm hungry and down when I have food in my belly. Seems bass ackwards.

I also walk a lot more since starting to wear a Fitbit. I average 12,000 to 14,000 per day.

I read a statistic that one in ten adults have diabetes, and one in three have pre-diabetes, but most don't know it. I wonder if that's always been the case and we are more aware now?

[glatt]

Oh yeah, and I don't care much if I live to be 80, but I want to be active and healthy to pretty much the end. Quality of life, baby.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by glatt

Oh yeah, and I don't care much if I live to be 80, but I want to be active and healthy to pretty much the end. Quality of life, baby.

Please review this post on your 79th birthday

...that's being spoken by one whose 80th arrives in about 85 days
and I'm still determined to whop the GOP before I leave...

[Undertoad]

February BP 132/80, controlled with meds

February A1C 6.9

February overall Cholesterol 121, Triglyceride 131, HDL 32 (low), LDL 63, controlled with meds

fasting sugar 90-120, controlled with meds and discipline

next one is next month

[Griff]

Weight under control, stress under control, 2x fencing nights @ 3 hours per and 1x mountain biking @ 3 hours per each week, no booze, is going well. Watching skin closely for the big C so far so good.

[glatt]

The big C.

I'm 48. Should get 'scoped in 2 years but I learned a couple months ago there's a family history of precancerous polyps, so I should call my primary care guy to get a referral for a colon guy to do it now, but I'll probably just wait for my next physical in the winter some time. I should probably do it now, but I have no symptoms and eat well with lots of fiber.

[Clodfobble]

Scopes are super easy. I've had two, my kids have each had two. Granted, we've got bad colon genes in my family, but if my relatives had gotten colonoscopies earlier, then my uncle and grandmother might still be alive, and my cousin wouldn't have been wearing a chemotherapy infusion tube at his daughter's birth.

Get freaking scoped, people.

For what it's worth, glatt, my blood sugar's like yours, even with the diet I eat. I never go above the "normal" high limits after eating, but it takes forever to go down again and I'm never within normal fasting ranges. My 12-hour fast is usually 105-110, and if I eat no fruit or honey for breakfast, just eggs or whatever, then by lunchtime it will be around 95. I've never in my life gotten a reading below that.

[Griff]

I've been scoped as well. Acid reflux is a thing. I take my omeprezole every morning.

[DanaC]

So he gave me the refill for the entire year which what I had hoped for.

Does this mean he has authorised a year's worth of prescription - so that you can just keep going back to the pharmacy for refills, without having to visit the doctor - or does it mean that you get a year's supply of medication?

[Beest]

Originally Posted by DanaC

Does this mean he has authorised a year's worth of prescription - so that you can just keep going back to the pharmacy for refills, without having to visit the doctor - or does it mean that you get a year's supply of medication?

The first one, you can keep getting new meds without seeing the Doc for a year, a lot of these services are mail order, 90 days worth of drugs at a time in the mail every 90 days.

[DanaC]

Gotcha. Thanks

[glatt]

I went to urgent care yesterday evening. Insect bite. Started off itchy the day before yesterday. Then yesterday morning, it was red and itchy. Then a lot redder. Then yesterday afternoon, red streaks started coming out of the itchy red spot.

So I went to urgent care after I had some pizza for dinner. Let me say, urgent care on a Thursday at 7:30 pm is a dream. I was seen right away by reception, and after filling out the form, I was taken into an exam room within 2 minutes. And I sat in there for maybe a minute before the doctor came in.

She spritzed the bite area and then dug around in there because it looked like there might have been a tiny foreign object in the puncture site. But there wasn't. Then she traced the red area and red streak. Put a bandaid on it, and gave me a prescription for a 7 day course doxycycline, and urged me to get to a pharmacy right away to take the first dose that evening.

So I did. When I went to bed, the red streak had moved from my inside elbow to about and inch up the side of my bicep. And when I woke up in the morning, and took my second dose of 14 pills, the streak had reached to halfway up my bicep. That sucker was moving fast.

I resolved to leave work at noon and go back to urgent care if the 2nd pill didn't beat back the infection. But the progress of the red streak has stopped, and it is literally fading fast. The whole bite area had gone from a fairly deep red to more of a faint pink with a red center.

I love modern medicine. But I was wondering about possible side effects of killing off most of the bacteria in my body with a 7 day course of antibiotics. My FIL got a nasty C-Diff infection after his last dose of antibiotics, and I think it wound up killing him, although the death certificate blamed heart failure. I looked up the side effects of doxycycline, and saw that around 15% of people feel nausea and 10% vomit. And the funny thing is, I've felt fine since taking these two pills, but just as I was reading these side effects, I started to feel a little wave of nausea pass over me. The power of the brain over the body is a very real thing. I'm an idiot for reading side effects.

I still wonder though if I should pick up some probiotics from the store and eat those while taking these pills to keep any possible C. Diff. in my gut from taking this opportunity to give me the shits.

[Clodfobble]

Well you know me, I'm always a fan.

[footfootfoot]

Drink a few bottles of Lifeway Kefir. It's frigging delicious and full of 7 different kinds of probiotics.