Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Medical Madness!

I have been very blessed with good health all my life. This is a gift from God and I thank Him for it. While I do not take it for granted I am aware that as time passes by many things change and issues involving health is one of the ‘biggies’. A couple of months ago I went to the doctor to have him check on some skeleton pain in my chest which I thought I had strained but ended up thinking it might be arthritis. Yes, that’s right, at sixty plus you do have things like arthritis!

So he checked me over and since I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually seen a regular physician he decided to give me a complete check-up including all kinds of tests, exams, etc. But the only reason I came to him was to check on this bone pain. He did a variety of x-rays but when the battery of blood tests came back it indicated my blood sugar was elevated, my cholesterol was too high, and that coupled to borderline high blood pressure set off alarm bells (for him, not me).

He started me on all these medications. I’ve been blessed to have taken very few prescription drugs throughout my lifetime. Other than the aggravation of the pain I had been experiencing I felt pretty good before I went to the doctor. But these medications totally whacked out my entire system. They also did an endoscopy and a colonoscopy. Tell you what, if I had known all of this was coming I would have certainly delayed my 60th birthday for a few years.

The past two months has been a very humbling experience as I have been in monitor and adjustment mode. I’ve pricked my fingers and checked my blood glucose, I’ve kept up with my weight, blood pressure, and heart rate, and I’ve had to work with the doctor to change the medication so that I could get up and go each day. The good news is that everything seems to be headed in the right direction and it just may turn out that I can manage all these new found issues with diet. That’s my goal and I will be lobbying for it when I go back in mid October.

I’m certainly not joking about the seriousness of diabetes or high blood pressure or any other medical problems that millions face every day. However, it just seems so odd that I had gone along so well for so long and then all of a sudden I have five pill bottles with my name on it! Somewhere deep in the recesses of my mind I’m thinking they have the wrong guy or the wrong diagnosis. Since being on this regimen they have had to cut the two primary medications in half since it had slowed down my system so much. Then there was the issue of listing my gender as female on the blood tests. I told them I was not the bearded lady from the circus which they didn’t think was that funny and they still believed they had the right set of numbers regardless.

Here I was minding my own business and enjoying the fatted calf so to speak and now I’m on one of those high fiber, low sugar, watch out on everything kind of programs. I’ve lost twelve pounds thus far and I have the medication dosages now within livable adjustment and my energy levels seem to be coming back. I’ve tried to cooperate with the program I’ve been given and I’ve read hundreds of pages of information so that I can be well informed. It has been quite a change for me. My wife has nursed a variety of health issues for years and I guess this experience makes me more aware of what she has been dealing with. But I am not giving up yet on the fact that this entire episode may have been a BIG MISTAKE and if not I will be going for the next best thing and that is to be able to deal with these challenges without medication. Using their terminology that would indicate diet and lifestyle changes.

So there you have it. I remember back in the day whenever I failed to show up for work at the big company the joke among the staff was they should check the funeral homes. Now I reckon they will just look at each other and say, “Did he mention they were drawing blood today, or did he have another exam to do?” To be honest I prefer the funeral home story but we live with the current event we have been given and I thank God for His helping me to deal with these issues. …..More later.

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