Friday,
January 24, 2003
Still on the subject of health
Weight loss is all fine and good, but as Dr. Scott can tell you, having a fab physique doesn't necessarily guarantee that everything's functioning well on the inside. Since my father has high cholesterol/hypothyroidism and had an angioplasty in November, and heart disease runs in my mom's side of the family (heart attacks killed my great-grandmother and grandmother -- I was astounded when my mom's autopsy report said that her heart was in good condition), I stopped off tonight and bought a home cholesterol test kit to see what was going on in the old bloodstream.
I now have a rather impressive bruise on my finger from having to squeeze it so hard to get a sufficient amount of blood (I really do have to start drinking more water -- I had the same problem the last time I went in for a blood test. The nurse poked four holes in the back of my hand because the blood flow kept stopping. Talk about viscosity -- she finally handed me a bottle of water to chug and sent me along to the lab to get the draw done by the pros. Note to self -- make sure you drink lots o' water before your next blood test), but I also tested at 196 mg/dL, in the "low risk" range. I'm going to work on bringing that down some more since it is at the high end of the range, but it's still nice to see. What I really wish I could test at home is my triglyceride level -- I know that it was awfully high when we were in Montreal (then again, our lifestyle was moderately dreadful, thank you ever so much TBS), and the last time I had a contract physical it was still above the recommended range. I think I'll have it checked at my next physical -- it'll be interesting to see if there's any correlation between it and my new hobbies.
Still 275, but I wimped out on the squats this afternoon and shifted to leg presses because my knee was bothering me, so I'm happy with holding the status quo. By the way, it doesn't bother anyone that I talk about my weight here, does it? I'm trying to set up something of a record of how all this is going, and jotting it down in my journal is the best way to do that (you'd be surprised how often I use this as reference material for when something happened).
Oh, and just out of curiosity
If, for example, your spouse was being extremely funny while taking a shower, and you went and got your new videocamera that s/he purchased for you as your Christmas present, and taped him/her from the shoulders up (because, after all, you aren't Pamela and Tommy) while s/he was riffing, do you think s/he would be terribly upset if you used that footage in a little movie?
Yeah, that's what
I thought, too. Pity -- he really was on form tonight, especially during the
moment when he realized I wasn't just playing around with the camera and really
was taping him. Wonder if there's a market for "Computer Engineers
Gone Wild". . .