Some Post-Dr. Visit Thoughts

Hey, it happens. You get into your late 50's, and Doctor Appointments become very important, particularly if you have a history of stroke. Today, Dr. Pettit (imagine Doogie Houser in Air Force blue) and I went over the results of a follow-up blood test, about 60 days after I started taking Lipitor. Doogie, I mean, Dr. Pettit was pleased at the difference. On the test in December, he told me my cholesterol was "high." but didn't give me a number. He showed my my "bad cholesterol" number, which was 178 and high, and my triglycerides, which were 24, and low. What he didn't tell me was that my overall cholesterol was 250 (I found out today). It's probably a good thing he kept that tidbit to himself, I'd have probably "stroked-out" on the spot. It was only 217 when I had my stroke in '02.

The good news is, overall cholesterol is 166, HDL's are 130, and LDL's are 39.6. He called it "perfect," I call it "better living through chemistry." I've been on a "limited" diet for a long time, the problem is, it's limited to all of the wrong things, red meat and the like. I detest most veggies, like few fruits, and must have ice cream at fairly regular intervals. I'm the poster-boy for "ticking time bomb," and yet I can take a pill and it makes it OK. God I love the 21st Century.

As for my other issues, traumatic arthritis and a bulging disk at L5/S1, I survive. As a former athlete, I learned to "go beyond the pain," and to focus on things other than pain, to go on. As an "overweight" (at 5'8" and 165 lbs) 50-something, that ability helps me get through my days, Vicodin gets me through the nights when the pain is bad, which is fairly often. I try not to use the Vicodin too often, it's not a nightly-thing. My jetted bathtub is actually very effective at easing some of the pain, and I'm in it sometimes twice per-day. I have an Epidural Steroid Injection coming up March 18th, that eases the symptoms of sciatica by shrinking the disks, and taking pressure off of the sciatic nerve. For those of you with sciatic problems, I know what you're dealing with, and I sympathize. I deal with that excruciating little malady too.

I suppose, if I have any regrets it's that I didn't take better care of myself when I was younger. But very few of us did. Of course, if I had taken better care of myself when I was younger, I wouldn't have had near as much fun. If it was a trade-off, I got the better deal.