On Friday, I had a checkup with Dr. H. regarding my myriad of health issues. First, I talked with Nurse Debbie. I was bursting to tell her I lost almost 11 pounds. She was SOOO excited for me! She asked what I was doing and I said I was exercising and eating less. I made sure to point out that I’m not cutting anything completely from my diet, just eating smaller amounts of food. She agreed this is probably the best way for me to lose weight.
Pulse was good. Blood pressure was… (insert fanfare) 136/86. Still not great, but down from 149/92 in December! SCORE.
I also told Debbie about my plan to do a 5k in April and a half-marathon in July. I even told her about my breakthrough C25k moment last week. I also told her about something that happened during that run/walk that I didn’t share with y’all. I had a wardrobe malfunction. I was about 12 min into the intervals on the treadmill when I felt a li’l drafty. Figured it must be because I was running oh-so-fast. Then I did a “pants check.” Yep. Sure enough, my pants fell below my bootay. Luckily, I was wearing a long shirt and *hopefully* no one saw too much of my underwear. I quickly pulled my pants up. I hope I didn’t scar anyone for life. Nurse Debbie started laughing so hard her eyes began to water. She said she felt bad about laughing but it was too funny. I assured her I didn’t mind if she laughed… I’ve been laughing about it all week.
So then Dr. H. came in and we had a really good talk (20+ min) about everything. I told her about the 5k, half-marathon and this blog. She was so happy I’ve lost weight. “I’m impressed,” she said when she realized I had lost almost 11 pounds in just 6 weeks. Dr. H. laughed about the wardrobe malfunction and said she definitely thought I could walk a half marathon in July. YES!
Dr. H. was very happy to see my blood pressure had dropped and attributed that to my exercising. She said that hopefully in a few months, it will be back down to normal! I’m so happy I don’t have to go on meds!
I went to the lab to have some blood drawn to check my Thyroid levels and my TSH was down to 5.24 (from 10.2 in December). She upped my meds slightly and hopefully the increase will help regulate my levels enough that I don’t need to up them anymore. I started the higher dose Saturday and haven’t noticed a difference just yet. Soon, I hope! My iron counts were good, so I don’t have to increase that.
The results from the sleep apnea link test I took earlier this month came in last week. I wasn’t in the “normal” range, but I wasn’t in the “grossly abnormal” stage either. Basically, that means I have to do a sleep study at the hospital. THAT should be a blast. I hardly slept with the apnea link, I can’t imagine how I’ll sleep with even more stuff hooked up to me and a video camera watching me sleep. I just might make an obscene gesture or two, to make sure they’re paying attention.
I also talked with Dr. H. about my knee pain, telling her I think it’s just weak from not working out and maybe I aggravated some scar tissue from the surgery I had when I was 18. She said if the pain wasn’t stabbing/short, I was probably right. So I’m gonna work on strengthening my calves/quads/hamstrings plus hip abductors/adductors and hope that helps righty out. Acupuncture is actually helping quite a bit, so hopefully the combination of the above with the new brace I ordered I will be able to continue C25k training next week. I’ve decided that I’m taking this week off, and focusing on the strength training and will just do walking and/or biking for cardio.
Reminder: I’m selling coffee to raise money for Crohn’s and Colitis research!
