Lifetime Challenge: Only four days to go
So here I am – four days to go until surgery, 14kilos down since I was referred and counting the minutes. The home straight to all intents and purposes. Which of course is why I came down with a cold. I battled it out over the weekend and thought I had won the war – but no – a sore throat kicked in yesterday and I had no choice but to head to the Doctor this morning.
I’m glad I did -and anyone who knows me well knows it is not often you hear me say that. I’ve never seen Dr Starr before and I was all prepared to do battle, which to be honest was unfair of me. In my defence though I will say that after years of battling people’s ideas of what causes obesity, I tend to be a little wary. This time though, it was my bad. Dr Starr was lovely - very supportive and encouraging. She checked my throat, pronounced it slightly red and wrote a prescription for some antibiotics. Normally, she said, she wouldn’t have given me anything but she didn’t want to risk giving the surgery department a reason to delay things. Normally, I replied, I wouldn’t be there but I didn’t want to risk giving the surgery department a reason to delay things either.
Then it was time to check my blood pressure. Now Doctors and I have been having a fight over my blood pressure for the past five years. It has got steadily higher during that time and as such the medication has been steadily increased. I kept asking if it could be so high because of my weight and not one, but six, Doctors told me point blank it had nothing to do with my weight. Blood pressure this high was clearly a genetic thing. Did my family have high blood pressure? Well both my mother and my grandfather yes – and both overweight. All that proved, according to the people I saw, was that it was genetic.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not arguing for the sake of arguing. If it’s genetic – it’s genetic. But I have this gut feeling it was more about my weight than my family history. So for a while I stubbornly refused to take it at all – which simply proves that for a supposedly intelligent woman, I’m sometimes not that smart. The result was waking up one morning with a shocking headache that nearly landed me in hospital. I took a painkiller and went to the market with the family. About half way around said market I turned to Dennis and suggested I needed to see a Doctor. Uh huh, he replied somewhat distractedly, when would I like to do that?
“Now,” was my answer. I’m not sure what was going through his head when he looked at me, but I know we got to the nearest Saturday clinic in double time. I also know that I felt decidedly - not good. There is no other description. There they hooked me up to a monitor and we discovered my blood pressure was 200 over 114. Even *I* know that’s not a good thing. The problem was they couldn’t do anything there because the authority number on my medication is held by the local pharmacy. I remember the Doctor telling Dennis to “go straight there – do not stop anywhere on the way – we’ll fax the prescription – and make sure she takes the tablet immediately.” He must have phoned the pharmacy because they had one out of the foil waiting for me when I got there.
But I digress – my point is it was a stupid thing to do and it just added fuel to the argument that my problem was genetic. I agreed to never do anything quite so stupid again and stopped fighting them.
Fastforward to this morning. Dr Starr took my BP and asked me when I had last taken a tablet. Somewhat shame faced I had to admit I hadn’t had one in over a week as I had run out. To her credit she didn’t yell at me (though Dennis probably will when he reads this). She was impressed however as my reading was 130 over 80 – which is the lowest it has been in around four years and that’s with not having taken any meds for a week. Or so. I suggested this might support my theory that it was connected to my weight – and she agreed. What she has asked me to do, however, is go back on the meds anyway for now and let’s see what happens as the weight comes off. If it is the weight, it will soon be obvious and we’ll be able to stop the meds completely. If it’s genetic, I’llprobably be able to go on a minimal dose at least. So…three cheers for Dr Starr.
Which brings us to Monday. I still don’t know if it’s morning or afternoon but I guess sooner or later someone will let me know. You’d think. Okay going on past experience – if I haven’t heard by tomorrow afternoon, I’ll phone them.
I am over Optifast in a way you would not believe. Over the taste, the mixing and the whole concept. I would like some flavour and texture please and thank you. I would also like some damned millk and of all things a slice of salmon. It can be wafer thin – but I would like some. Or a spoonful of yoghurt. Or one of the tamarillos I bought yesterday. I don’t really care which. Just gimmee….
Not much more to say on the subject really except….BRING ON MONDAY