PICTURE OF HEALTH

6 December 2002

Yesterday I met with the PharmD (Doctor of Pharmacology), who was supposed to be checking up on my blood pressure medication and other things in general. Two days before I'd given half my blood to the lab for doing all sorts of tests: lipid panel (cholesterol), A1C (blood sugar), albumen (well that was a urine test), etc., etc., etc. Only the A1C results were in.

First thing he did was to weigh me. No trudging reluctantly to the scale for me. I love being weighed these days because each time I go to Kaiser, the numbers have dropped significantly. Holy moly--talk about dropped. I couldn't believe the scale could possibly be right--it weighed me fifteen pounds less than WeightWatchers had weighed me. I was ecstatic. (The doctor decided to weigh me again later after our meeting--and it was more in line with the WeightWatchers number--2 lbs less, but more believable).

Then we went to the little office where he checked my lab results on his computer, asked all those probing questions and took my blood pressure.

Before going on this diet, my blood pressure was 150/90. Unfortunately, the diet and exercise didn't bring it down, so my primary care physician had put me on a blood pressure medication--not unexpected, since my father's side of the family suffered from high blood pressure . When Dr. G checked my blood pressure 2 days after I started it, it had already dropped to 135/85. The last time it was checked before Dr. G left on vacation, it was 130/80. Yesterday it was 127/75. The PharmD was ecstatic.

Next he checked my blood sugar levels and they were so low...as were all of my results from all of the lab tests...that he wonders whether I'm really diabetic at all.

Then came the questions:

How much exercise do you get? Easy: 8 miles of biking 3 times a week, 40-50 minutes at the club the other two days, longer bike rides, sometimes, on the weekends. He says that most people say "oh, I get exercise at my work," which includes walking to and from the copy machine. He was very pleased with my response.

Do you smoke? Nope. Never have.

How about cooking--do you cook from scratch? What sorts of foods do you cook? Well, I told him about the WeightWatchers program and the kinds of things I've been cooking. Another check mark in the "good girl" column.

Coffee? Well, OK. Coffee--but not more than 2 cups a day. He let that pass.

In the end, he decided that I was doing everything right, all my numbers were great, I "may not be diabetic any more," my blood pressure is right where it should be. I got a clean bill of health and he says he doesn't need to see me again, unless my primary care physician decides I should have things checked again.

I can't tell you how great a feeling it is, first, not to be worried about what they were going to say to me when they discovered that I'm not doing all the right things--because I am doing all the right things, and secondly, to have a doctor smile through all of our meeting and tell me over and over again how I'm doing all the right things.

Never, in 60 years, has that happened to me. Talk about incentive to (a) stay on program, and (b) keep up with the suggested doctor appointments.

Add to that the fact that I've been pretty compliant with the dental program Cindy set out for me after she changed my life by fixing the damage 22 years of neglect had done to my teeth, and that I have my teeth cleaned 3 times a year and love to hear the hygienist tell me that everything is looking good.