Scary Things

Well today was one of those days where really good things happened, and some scary things happened. My mother after suffering for years with a bad knee, had it surgically replaced today. She came through in fine shape and was actually up and walking around this evening on her new "bionic" leg. So that was good, (but also a little scary).
Then I called my wife to let her know that I was heading home, (the hospital is about an hour away), and she told me that my doctor had called. Remember my entry on Friday about fasting for blood tests, well apparently they put a rush order on the results, (which is never good).

Now I like my doctor, and he has a good bedside manner. I guess he professes that if you concentrate on the "sugar" the medicine is easier to swallow. He was calling to let me know that, "overall your blood tests came back good", except for my blood sugar, triglicerides, and 244 cholesterol count being too high, that is. He also let me know that I need to make an appointment with him as soon as I can so that we can go over my test results and he can get me started on the necessary pharmecueticals, (I guess that is supposed to sound better than medicines).

So great, I started high blood pressure medicine 3 weeks ago, now I need even more "pharmacueticals", (yes I know I am misspelling it but I don't feel like looking up the correct spelling right now so please forgive me). I HATE taking medicines. Now I guess I am going to have to get one of those weekly medicine dispensors, as it sounds like there is going to be a lot of pills involved.

I am going to ask my Doc if I can hold off for 6 more weeks of the Paleo challenge before starting these medicines, so that we can retest and see if the change in lifestyle is helping. I thought for sure with reducing my carb intake the way I have, that my blood sugar levels, (that I knew were borderline), would be better. As Nicki alluded to in the Norcal Strength Blog, it took me a while, (and a lot of hard work and arm twisting on her part), but I have given up all my sugared and diet sodas and drinks. I gave up my ketchup, (my kids bought me a shirt that says, "I put ketchup on my ketchup", because ketchup was not a garnish for me, but rather a staple food in my diet. I even gave up my gluten free pastas, breads, potatoes and rice. All in the name of better health. While that helped me lose weight and feel physically better, then I took this Paleo challenge on to push it even more......and what do I get......worse test results than I started with. Sheesh. Logically I know that due to age, all of these problems get worse, and that if I had not made these changes, I would be even in worse shape. But it is damn disappointing. But hope remains eternal. Maybe the 7 days on the Paleo Diet was not long enough to really change my numbers. That is why I want to retest and "hope" all is better if I stick to my diet. This is probably wishful thinking, but it is the best I got at this point.