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my health update
Friday, 5 June 2009 19:10( health items not related to what I posted to Twitter this afternoon )
Now onto my tweet.
While @ the doc's, he decided suddenly he had wanted to see me back in January. Well he's seen me a number of times since then and never mentioned it, but whatever. He saw something in his notes that said "this woman had a physical a year and a half ago - she needs another". We didn't schedule a physical, though. Instead, he took blood while I was there because he just wanted to do a cholesterol check. I warned him that I had not fasted, and he said it wouldn't make any difference. I don't remember now (June 5) what I had for breakfast but I definitely had a 20 oz Starbucks vanilla latte with extra vanilla syrup. Breakfast would also have had some sugar - possibly a SlimFast shake. This may be important later.
Today I missed a call: "This is Dr.'s office, please call us as soon as you get this." OMG! I call right away, I get put on hold for 10 minutes while they find the right person to talk to me. Nurse gets on the phone and said the doctor got my blood test results and he wants to start me on Zocor right away.
I am overweight, but I have NEVER had a bad cholesterol reading - or blood sugar or pulse or anything. I've always been healthy. So out of the blue, to say I need medication immediately for something I haven't even discussed with the doctor throws me.
I say "Hang on. Why?" I'm getting from her that the *only* answer to "Why?" is "because the doctor thinks you need it! shut up and take your pills like a good girl." She doesn't say this, but it's a vibe. So I follow up with how I've never had cholesterol problems, I didn't fast for the test so maybe I should do another test first to be sure, and say "for example, what are my numbers?"
Now, I'm in my car. I don't remember off the top of my head what my cholesterol numbers should be. But I hoped if she said my LDL was, like, 200, I'd know to go "ack!!". The nurse says that my total cholesterol number is 284. Not great, but not fatal, if memory serves. She says more of a concern than that is that my triglycerides came back as 388. Normal is around 150. I don't know triglycerides from a hole in my head, so I ask if that number would change if I did a fasting test. She says it might go down to 300, but it'd never get as low as 150 just because of fasting. (I'm going to take the weekend to look all these things up and see what's what.)
But that's not all! Then she says that also, my sugar reading came back a bit high. He said he was only testing cholesterol, but apparently he tested glucose too, and found that to be high. Again I remind her I hadn't fasted. I think she was going to tell me they consider me pre-diabetic based on that reading, but we never got that far. She asked what I had for breakfast, and while I was trying to remember anything other than the coffee, we got disconnected. My phone dropped the call.
I tried to call back. During our conversation, the clock changed from before-4-PM to after-4-PM so the office was closed. I couldn't get anybody to answer.
The nurse did not call me back.
So to recap: She leaves me a message to say I have to call right away, when I do she tells me straight off I need medication right away, and then when I'm disconnected before we can arrange for me to get said medication, she doesn't call me back.
I know it's Friday. But come on! You don't lay a health problem on someone and then not even finish the conversation! I have no messages from her indicating that she tried to call me back in the last 4 hours. I went to their office to see if (a) I could catch someone before they left or (b) they had Saturday hours so I could conclude the conversation. The office door was already locked so I couldn't talk to anyone, and the hours aren't posted on the door so I don't know if anyone will answer tomorrow.
I LOVE my doctor. Many of you have heard me declare again and again how awesome my doctor is. But I'm starting to be less than impressed with his nursing staff.
You gotta know that things happen with my system when I start new medicines. I often end up with migraines when I change medications. I want to make sure the drug is not going to interact badly with my other medications, and I want to make sure the doctor or someone has considered that before just having me take a pill - on a Friday afternoon, no less, where if I have a bad side effect that means a trip to the ER because the doctor isn't in until Monday. I don't just want to take Zocor because they took my doctor to lunch or something, you know?
I called my sister to vent. She said most of the cholesterol meds don't have much of an affect on triglycerides. That makes me LESS inclined to add a new medicine to my regimen. A quick look online indicates the way to reduce triglycerides without medication means changing diet and starting exercise. Like I haven't said I'd do THAT a million times. So I may start taking the medication (if it won't harm me) just to be on the safe side while I get my eating-and-exercise act in gear.
I'm going to do some research and see what I can find out before I speak with the nurse again. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise that now I have time to do that.
Now onto my tweet.
While @ the doc's, he decided suddenly he had wanted to see me back in January. Well he's seen me a number of times since then and never mentioned it, but whatever. He saw something in his notes that said "this woman had a physical a year and a half ago - she needs another". We didn't schedule a physical, though. Instead, he took blood while I was there because he just wanted to do a cholesterol check. I warned him that I had not fasted, and he said it wouldn't make any difference. I don't remember now (June 5) what I had for breakfast but I definitely had a 20 oz Starbucks vanilla latte with extra vanilla syrup. Breakfast would also have had some sugar - possibly a SlimFast shake. This may be important later.
Today I missed a call: "This is Dr.'s office, please call us as soon as you get this." OMG! I call right away, I get put on hold for 10 minutes while they find the right person to talk to me. Nurse gets on the phone and said the doctor got my blood test results and he wants to start me on Zocor right away.
I am overweight, but I have NEVER had a bad cholesterol reading - or blood sugar or pulse or anything. I've always been healthy. So out of the blue, to say I need medication immediately for something I haven't even discussed with the doctor throws me.
I say "Hang on. Why?" I'm getting from her that the *only* answer to "Why?" is "because the doctor thinks you need it! shut up and take your pills like a good girl." She doesn't say this, but it's a vibe. So I follow up with how I've never had cholesterol problems, I didn't fast for the test so maybe I should do another test first to be sure, and say "for example, what are my numbers?"
Now, I'm in my car. I don't remember off the top of my head what my cholesterol numbers should be. But I hoped if she said my LDL was, like, 200, I'd know to go "ack!!". The nurse says that my total cholesterol number is 284. Not great, but not fatal, if memory serves. She says more of a concern than that is that my triglycerides came back as 388. Normal is around 150. I don't know triglycerides from a hole in my head, so I ask if that number would change if I did a fasting test. She says it might go down to 300, but it'd never get as low as 150 just because of fasting. (I'm going to take the weekend to look all these things up and see what's what.)
But that's not all! Then she says that also, my sugar reading came back a bit high. He said he was only testing cholesterol, but apparently he tested glucose too, and found that to be high. Again I remind her I hadn't fasted. I think she was going to tell me they consider me pre-diabetic based on that reading, but we never got that far. She asked what I had for breakfast, and while I was trying to remember anything other than the coffee, we got disconnected. My phone dropped the call.
I tried to call back. During our conversation, the clock changed from before-4-PM to after-4-PM so the office was closed. I couldn't get anybody to answer.
The nurse did not call me back.
So to recap: She leaves me a message to say I have to call right away, when I do she tells me straight off I need medication right away, and then when I'm disconnected before we can arrange for me to get said medication, she doesn't call me back.
I know it's Friday. But come on! You don't lay a health problem on someone and then not even finish the conversation! I have no messages from her indicating that she tried to call me back in the last 4 hours. I went to their office to see if (a) I could catch someone before they left or (b) they had Saturday hours so I could conclude the conversation. The office door was already locked so I couldn't talk to anyone, and the hours aren't posted on the door so I don't know if anyone will answer tomorrow.
I LOVE my doctor. Many of you have heard me declare again and again how awesome my doctor is. But I'm starting to be less than impressed with his nursing staff.
You gotta know that things happen with my system when I start new medicines. I often end up with migraines when I change medications. I want to make sure the drug is not going to interact badly with my other medications, and I want to make sure the doctor or someone has considered that before just having me take a pill - on a Friday afternoon, no less, where if I have a bad side effect that means a trip to the ER because the doctor isn't in until Monday. I don't just want to take Zocor because they took my doctor to lunch or something, you know?
I called my sister to vent. She said most of the cholesterol meds don't have much of an affect on triglycerides. That makes me LESS inclined to add a new medicine to my regimen. A quick look online indicates the way to reduce triglycerides without medication means changing diet and starting exercise. Like I haven't said I'd do THAT a million times. So I may start taking the medication (if it won't harm me) just to be on the safe side while I get my eating-and-exercise act in gear.
I'm going to do some research and see what I can find out before I speak with the nurse again. So maybe it's a blessing in disguise that now I have time to do that.
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