Well, we just got the car unloaded and rinsed off (18 miles on a dirt road results in an amazing load of dust). Took a shower and scrubbed. Oh, my, was I dirty. And here I am: clean from running hot water and sitting in front of things plugged into outlets that run on electricity, and within range of a wireless network. I love camping, but I also love my creature comforts. Sigh. It is nice to be home.
It was a practically perfect weekend. The campground, in spite of its complete and entire lack of services of any kind, was idyllic. About ten yards from the river where we held a fishing derby (which included everyone except me, who had to study, of course)(well, and I can't fish, either, but it sounds better to say I had to study). Although there were some other sites up and down the river, none were within sight of us, so we felt like we were truly out there. It was so peaceful. The weather was perfect (although it got down below freezing at night), the food was yummy, the company was great. All holiday weekends should be so nice.
I feel like I should have other interesting and significant things to say, but nothing is coming to mind, so I'll just skip ahead to the number in the title: 262. Can you guess what it is? Is it the number of times I've posted so far this year? my number of Facebook friends? The number of miles I drive round-trip on Tuesday and Thursday? The number of times I woke up this weekend desperately needing to pee but unwilling to get out of my toasty warm sleeping bag?
Why, no, 262 would be my total cholesterol. The horror. I had a fasting blood draw Friday a.m., then had my annual appointment with my internist Friday afternoon right before leaving town. She was so kind about my weight gain (maybe partly because it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be -- only nine pounds on their scale). The nurse was even making excuses for me. But she was most unhappy about that cholesterol number. (Since I know at least one of you is a medical type, I'll add my bad (LDL) cholesterol was 178, also way too high.)
She didn't want to let me out of there without a prescription for cholesterol-lowering drugs, and I truly do not want to take them. The compromise is that she is giving me six months to get it down to a more reasonable number. Which, of course, means diet and exercise. Which means I really do have to get my act in gear about eating healthily. Dadgumit.
Which-- maybe unfortunately to some of my gentle readers-- will probably mean more posts on the topic. I try not to post often about diet and exercise because I don't want to participate in our society's obsession with thin-ness and weight-loss. But now that this is for sure not about weight, but about lowering my cholesterol, it seems a bit different. I will try not to bore you to death.
Happy Labor Day to all of my stateside readers, and a belated Happy Birthday to Julie, who is not nearly old enough to be as old as I am.
Lol, thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteI know nothing about this number or the other one you mentioned. (Mostly because I try to avoid doctors and their medical language. But also because I am fairly ignorant about it all. Only partially on purpose.)
And I highly doubt that what you would write on the subject of health will be boring. This is based on FACTS! You have discussed it before, and it was very well done.
Julie
well, I'm an English major so I don't always understand it myself. but ideally your total cholesterol is supposed to be under 200, and over 240 is not good. LDL should ideally be under 130, and my level is "very high." Apparently whether or not you need to go on meds depends on the numbers plus your other risk factors, and my only other risk factor is being over 50. So it's not a cut and dried thing. but since I've never done well when I have to be on daily meds for extended periods of time (never could take the pill, for example), I don't even want to try it.
ReplyDeleteHere is the website I found for the levels:
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-management/guide/understanding-numbers
Barb - I've heard of people who significantly cut their number with diet and exercise. If anyone can, you can.
ReplyDeleteIf you have 6 months you might also want to check out garlic. It's my understanding it raises your number for the first few months, then lowers it significantly.
Good luck.
Hey, I love garlic! perfect! I'll just have to make sure dh eats plenty, too :-)
ReplyDelete