A couple thoughts and a couple legs, on an early Thursday morning

Here I am, Thursday morning.  It’s 7:22am and I’m sitting on my ‘stretching blanket’ in front of my sofa, looking if there’s anything good to watch on Hulu after I finish this blog and before I make some breakfast.

I’m already on my second cup of coffee, I’ve been up for 90 minutes or so. The last couple weeks I’ve been going to bed early and getting up around 5:30am. 

Is that a sign of aging, I wonder?  Going to bed earlier?  I was pooped last night by 9:30, in bed asleep at 10pm. 

The reason you’re looking at my legs here is because this time tomorrow, I’ll be on a bus headed downtown so someone else can look at them too.

I have an appointment tomorrow morning at Mercy Hospital with my Egyptian PCP Dr. Nefrititi, to do a 6-8 month re-evaluation of my heart & hypertension drugs.  (I take two doses of Carvedilol during the day to regulate my heartbeat, Amlodipine in the PM for blood pressure.)

The last time I saw my doctor in December, I was dealing with some pretty severe fluid retention.  My legs and feet were swollen so bad they ‘wept’ at night, it was difficult to get around sometimes too.  I wondered if the amlodipine was worsening things and asked to be switched to another drug, but she said my BP numbers were in stroke territory, and felt this med was best for the time being.

Still, they took a LOT of pictures of my legs from every angle with an iphone to add to my patient record.

She told me to commit to a daily exercise regimen, and in 6 months we’d re-evaluate the meds.  Since then, my legs have shrunk considerably and I’ve lost 25 pounds.  I use a treadmill 5 times a week, Sunday nights and Monday thru Thursday afternoons.  I set the incline to 2 and the speed to 2.3, a pretty brisk pace. 

I do 4 laps (with a 2 minute breather between laps) which takes around 30 minutes.

Here’s some proof of my daily regimen, the fitness Center’s sign-in sheet for May

Anyway, I’d like to lose another 30-35 lbs (and plan to), I just want to continue doing it without fad dieting.  As for tomorrow, I’m hoping she takes a look at my lower BP numbers and skinny legs, and reduces these meds.

To be honest, the past several days haven’t been great.  Last week, Pennie (my state’s health insurance marketplace) notified me my account was flagged and I could lose my insurance in 15 days due to income discrepancies.  Saturday morning my laptop went black (my charger died).  On Sunday I was peeing blood (sorry), and on Monday morning I walked into my bathroom and the floor was flooded!  They wound up taking out my toilet and asked if I had some place I could stay for a day or two—nope!

Since then, things have turned around.  I spoke to my urologist (who allayed my fears about the blood in my urine), got things with Pennie resolved and a new toilet installed yesterday.  And then last night, a FedEx person buzzed me downstairs; he had the replacement charger & battery for my 5 day dead laptop. 

I was more than ready to crank out a nice long boring blog post! 

Now I can go back to worrying about finding a new chair… hopefully an update on that soon.

On an unrelated note, can I share some heartache here?  This past Sunday morning, I was watching a tribute video to Olivia Newton-John on Youtube.   

After the video I was reading the comments, and one person wrote “And RIP Judith Durham”.  What? 

I did a quick google search and sure enough, Judith Durham died at age 79 on August 5.  I am heartbroken.  Two of my favorite female voices of the 1960s were Lulu’s “To Sir With Love” and Judith Durham (and the Seekers) “Georgy Girl”.  

Olivia deserves all the fanfare, but how is it I’m just now learning about Judith?  (And for the record, unlike many singers, Judith never lost her voice as she got older.  She sounded as youthful at 75 as she did at 25.) 

I thought I’d end this post with one of my favorite Seekers videos.  The title couldn’t be more fitting.  RIP Judith, you will be loved and missed. 

FOLLOW-UP TO MY 6 MONTH EVALUATION WITH THE DOCTOR

Fri, Aug.19 - I met with Dr. Nefrititi this morning at 8:30, both she and her nursing staff couldn’t have been nicer or more encouraging.  Dr.Nef gave me a new goal to lose 15 lbs before my next visit in 3 months, but “no more than a pound a week”.  Um, the math doesn’t work out there! 

Anyway, she told me to accept the fact I would most likely be on these meds for the rest of my life.  By re-evaluation and possibly dropping them, she only meant if the current drugs weren’t working as intended. 

Thanks for all of your awesome & encouraging comments, everyone.