One Stop Boy Shop

Part 2.  

Today, let’s talk about me!  Well my health anyway, it’s boring but it’s a big part of where I’ve been.

I’m getting healthier!  I’m proud to announce that I’m no longer a walking heart attack waiting to happen.  I’ve lowered my cholesterol (good and bad were way too high) by over 100 points!  They’d given me that death sentence and told me that the markers showed that I had a natural propensity for high cholesterol and heart problems.  The doctors worried that I couldn’t do it because a pill alone wouldn’t solve my problems, neither would diet alone.  It was going to take dedication in diet AND medication to do the trick.  Well, I did it!

I found hordes of information online on cholesterol friendly foods.  I needed to lower my good cholesterol as well as my bad and my overall numbers.  I incorporated these cholesterol friendly foods into my diet.  This had nothing to do with weight loss, but choosing foods that were cholesterol friendly just for that purpose.  Foods I found/changes I made:

• apples – I eat apples often now.
• soy milk creamer – I no longer use a fat free creamer but a soy creamer.  This is much better for your cholesterol.  Even Fat Free or Sugar Free creamers are bad for your cholesterol
• Cheerios – yep!  The food that was already in my cupboard for my children was sitting right there waiting for me to start eating it.  It can lower your cholesterol by 10% in one month!
• Oatmeal – first off, I Hate oatmeal!  But a friend of mine Kristi told me of a way that I could stand it.  I make it and then stir in 2 tbsps All Natural Peanut Butter and believe it or not, it tastes ok!  Not great, but for a longer life I can stand it.
• Veggies! -  Green veggies are great for you.  I incorporated more salads, broccoli, raw spinach, anything green actually (well, not green m&m’s) into my diet.
• Smart Balance Butter – Ok so it has its drawbacks.  It does not melt worth a darn but it’s so much better for you than real butter or margarine and does not raise your cholesterol.
• Olive Oil – Well, that’s just good stuff there!
• Crestor – the medication that my doctor prescribed, with a reminder on my computer every day to take it (thank you to my nephew Wyatt, who finally got me to set up a reminder… it worked!)

that’s basically all that I did.  I tried to eat some fish but ewwwwww.  I ate some tuna fish occasionally and will try to eat more.  You’re supposed to eat 2 servings per week (but no more than 2) and I did not do that.  You can try Omega 3’s but I can’t stand to belch fish oil all day.. LOL  Eating better foods, has not been a diet but a life change.  I haven’t lost any weight (will work on that next) but only incorporated the good stuff in.  Now it’s time to shove the bad stuff out.

Head, Neck Migraines

I’ve been getting trigger point injections in my head and neck every 4-6 weeks which has greatly minimized the migraines.  I’m now going to a new doctor who is working towards isolating the exact nerves and he’ll perform radio frequency nerve ablation in order to provide me with a more permanent solution.  Once he’s isolated the nerves, basically he’ll be burning them (killing them) and they’ll take up to a year to grow back.  I’ll not have to have so many injections to keep me moving.

Monday, he did something called a Left C2/3 Facet joint injection and Third Occipital Nerve block.  So far the results much better.  The day of the injection,  left half of my head numb!  What a weird sensation.  I hope that’s normal and that won’t be a recurring theme, one that will be permanent when he kills the nerves, otherwise our friend Andy will continue to call me a “numbskull”.

Lastly!  We’re checking out my gall bladder.  On the search for whether it’s functioning correctly, they discovered two 5 mm kidney stones in my left kidney <sigh>.  I’ll probably be having Asteroid’s surgery (they get to play the game Asteroids and blast those suckers) on that soon.  This is by no means, new news to me.  I get those suckers one right after another.  I can’t even tell you how many surgeries I’ve had to remove or blast them.  We’ve done testing and there doesn’t appear to be anything that I’m doing wrong (diet or habit wise) to encourage them.  What can I say?  I’m a genuine kidney stone factory!

2010 looks to be the year of getting Nancy put back together though.  No longer are we chasing symptoms, we’re working on fixes.  My husband likes to joke that he didn’t know it but that the year he married me my warranty expired.  I’ll show him!  The new, healthier, fixed me is coming soon!!!

Kidney Stone Update:  I just went and had a CT Scan this morning.  I have 7 stones in my left kidney and 1 in my right.  I opted for no surgery because none of them are as big as the ultrasound indicated.  They’re 3mm at the largest and I can pass those.. not scary to me.

Gall Bladder Update:  Had my hidascan done yesterday, don’t have the actual results.  I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on T.V. but I am a betting woman.  I’m betting (from watching the test) that my gall bladder function is normal, so I feel safe in saying I’m in the clear there too!  The right side pain was probably that kidney stone on the right that I didn’t know about but found out today.