I am now officially old

My doctor's appointment on Tuesday morning launched me into my waning years, I'm afraid. Now I admit this isn't the official way to define the "golden stage" of life, but to me once you have to take a drug everyday you're old. Today I picked up some statins to control cholesterol and they have to be taken every day.

But it could have happened sooner. My doctor wanted me to take high blood pressure meds a couple of months ago. I had to talk her into running a 24 hour BP monitor instead. Fortunately that test (it checked BP every 15 minutes for a total of nearly 100 datapoints across the 24 hours I had the monitor on--which is a lot more accurate than taking just one BP reading at the doctor's office)

Today also marked the second time in recent weeks that people have peeked inside of me. Today it was an echo cardiogram. I was surprised at how much detail it showed. For the most part I was facing away from the screen but the last 5 or 6 minutes I could watch--and it was a mildly interesting show. The scan was very much in the way of precautionary on my doctor's part so there's nothing to worry about. I don't think I'm going to be dropping anytime soon. On the other hand, I'm taking a med daily now so the clock is ticking louder and louder...

Comments

Unknown said…
You sound so calm for being so OLD!
9:28 PM
Smug said…
I don't know if this stuff makes anyone "old" my sister has some minor health issues, but they require her to take meds each day, and she is not old. Age is just a number and how you feel is what is important!
7:13 AM
rosemary said…
three suggestions:

diet change
red yeast rice
niacin

been there done that with the high cholesterol and i refuse to take a statin....the above dropped my results from over 300 to a stable 215.
6:28 PM
kenju said…
welcome to the club.....LOL. My echocardiogram uncovered a prolapsed valve and atrial tachycardia!! You're lucky.
7:41 PM
SassyAssy said…
Ancient One....maybe that is what happens when you put off annual checkups?????

Glad you are relatively healthy & that your snarky humor is intact.
3:38 PM
Uisce said…
when I was in prison and lost all that weight, my cholesterol numbers went way way down, and my doctor was quite impressed. OK, just kidding about being in prison. :)
3:55 PM
Unknown said…
You are a young man, Utenzi. So, remember not to compare your health with others. 20-somethings today are dying young from drug use and otherwise ruining their lives with piercings and tattoos. Know that you have a peak performance level that can always be strengthened no matter what age you are. And this is Hopeful! Live on!!!
12:48 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nitroflex at home

Image
I mentioned a few days ago that I'd purchased off of Craig's List an exercise machine. A Nitroflex, to be more specific, for the grand sum of $75. The boxes you see to the left were bought by the seller as discontinued merchandise over a year ago and stored in his back yard storage shed. You might be able to see some of the bugs and such that had made their homes on these boxes. I left them out on my deck for a few days before opening them to allow the insects to leave gracefully or die in the sun. The picture to the left is the pieces from the box, unboxed, and up in one of my upstairs bedrooms. For the most part it wasn't difficult to move it around though two pieces were heavy and a number of them were kinda long and bulky to be wandering about the house with. Surprisingly, this kit didn't require any extra tools. There were two allen keys and one combo wrench included in the boxes and that was all it took to put it together. The whole thing only took about half an h...
Read more

ankle update

S ince a few people object to seeing my feet --poor misdirected souls--I have the two pictures below hidden behind links. Behold them at your own risk! *evil laugh* Actually they're not scary though the first one is a little colorful. T he first picture shows my ankle and foot from the side, as labeled. You can see a lot of general edema of the entire foot. There's also a good bit of discoloration of the ankle area and to a lesser degree the top of the foot all the way down to the toes. The side view is a lot worse in this regard than the top view. T he second picture shows the two feet from the top so you can compare the somewhat normal looking right foot to the injured left foot. There's not much abnormal color on this view but you can see the "sausage like" swelling of the left foot. It's this swelling that is causing my main problem--I can't get the foot into my boots and I need the boots to support the ankle. Damn Catch-22. Side view, looking inward ...
Read more

Ostrich poop found here

Image
I took these pictures last Fall while visiting the NC Zoo. On the left you can see what appears to be a nice polite ostrich just wandering around. This impression soon turns out to be false when her dowdy tail feathers raise up and reveal a puckered anus. Ewwww! If you look carefully, you can see that she's made a deposit on the ground. More ewwww! Feel free to click on the image to make them bigger. Details can make all the difference in these shots. In other matters, aren't those really bony legs they have? And couldn't they have a little more color?
Read more