April 30: Yes, I'm still here....

For weeks I've been meaning to post, get caught up in other things and....

Many reasons, best of which is that since my foot is finally better this allows me to go walking. I've been increasing and am now up to 40 minutes, trying to do some hills as well. My ultimate goal is to climb the mountain in NH during the family vacation in August. The last time I climbed was in July 2004, just before my heart started it's rapid decline. Only problem with the increased exercise is that the increase in breathing has made my chest more sore, including the chest tube insertion site. It's much higher than climbing the Tor and without the nice benches.

Much appreciate the suggestions of removal of the medic sticker. Trying not to cut myself open and bleed all over the sparkling clean interior was a definite goal. Ended up just turning it over to Wes for him to deal with--he'll probably figure out that mechanics use the tool for the inspection stickers!

I've been in a weird mood of late, not sure why. Guess my subconscious isn't ready to let me in on the secret yet. While I wouldn't describe it as depression it certainly has many of the same features. Not feeling very social.

Got a bunch of blood work done, hoping to find that my thyroid was underactive which would be the easiest thing to fix. My thyroid is totally normal but the cholesterol levels were absolutely horrid. The LDL (bad cholesterol) was particularly wretched. My comment to the cardiologist was that my diet isn't the best, but it isn't bad enough to justify those numbers. The good news is that with repeated cardiac catheterizations as recently as 3 years ago we know there aren't any blockages. So the diet is really on now, the walking will help and will re-test to see if it was just an anomaly. The cardiologist kept saying he didn't want me to automatically put me on a medicine I'd have to take for the rest of my life, which is a valid point. It loses it's impact, however, on someone who will take coumadin for the rest of her life. What's another pill?

On a really bad note: Chrissy, my friend from work, who has in her own words created fodder for this blog, is very sick. Monday morning in the office she looked like crap. She was quite upset on my telling her that, not because of the blunt phrasing but because she had spent longer than usual on her makeup and thought no one would notice. Her primary doctor wasn't as concerned and just sent her home. But she was still in excruciating pain when I called to check on her that night, after much coaxing/pleading/begging/threatening she relented and went to the ER, probably just to shut me up. Tuesday morning she was getting an urgent appendectomy. This doesn't really require any praising of my diagnostic skills because she really looked ill, her family had been unsuccessful in talking her into going to the hospital because she's so friggin' stubborn. (My most persuasive argument was all the lovely pain medicine she would get through the IVs!) Apparently the appendix had been wrapped around an intestine, wasn't in the usual place. She was discharged yesterday, fell at home, opened up the surgical sites and was back in the hospital yesterday getting another surgery. Reports vary between it being from a herniation to a blocked intestine. With her labile diabetes she is probably going to have a difficult recovery, so please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.

OK, gotta go to bed. Thanks for hanging in and continuing to check, Laurie