Tuesday, March 06, 2007

The 3rd brick building....you know...cause there's only one direction to count buildings

So I had an appointment at the cardiologists office. First off, got a little confused, they moved it from the Ravenna office to the "Expansion office next door" So I called today before I left work to make sure I knew where I was going. Obviously I was a little preoccupied being at work, so I didn't think twice when the receptionist said "You know where the Ravenna office is, right? Well that's the 2nd brick building, you just want the 3rd brick building" Not until I got there and realized "Hey wait...which direction do I count from?" Needless to say I counted the wrong direction, and went to the "1st" brick building, which was the "3rd" brick building the way *I* counted. I'll have to write a letter, get them to rearrange the buildings.
Anyways, got in to the proper building, had an ekg done, talked to the nurse practicitioner or physicians' assistant, whatver he was. He said my echo from last week looked ok, there was mild dialation of my right ventricle, and a few other technical things which he lost me on (pre-load vs. post-load pressures, you'd think I have a hydraulic system in there...oh wait) Anyways, the main thing he said was that there's nothing glaringly obvious that they're seeing that would make them say "Hey! that's probably what caused him to go into atrial fibrillation!" Which is both good and bad. On the good side, there's nothing major wrong with me. On the bad side, there's still the whole unanswered question of "Hey! what caused me to go into atrial fibrillation?" Sleep apnea is still a suspect at this point. And honestly I think I probably do have anea. With my sleep problems, and my lack of energy, the heart stuff, it all kinda adds up.
Which is a perfect segueway into my new life goal. I'm going to weigh 250 lbs within a calendar year. 03/07/08. That's about 50 lbs of weight loss (give or take 5 lbs), which works out to around 4-5 lbs weight loss a month. The NP/PA/WE said in his opinion if I got down to 250 I more than likely could get off the blood pressure medication. And it'd help me across the board. I'm just sick and tired of feeling sick and tired. And I'm getting fed up with these condtions that lead to tests that lead to no answers. Other than I'm fat which is not a good thing to be when you've got the family health history I have. So I'm sure some of you are asking "How do you plan to lose 50 lbs in 12 months?" I really don't know yet, other than I've gotta get more active. I need to walk more, gotta get back into hiking again. After I get back into exercise, then I'll worry about tweaking a diet.
So we'll see what happens. Maybe I can pull it off, maybe I can't. won't be the end of the world either way. At least I've got something in sight to strive for.

3 comments:

Carlo said...

Hey man, sorry to hear about the health problems as of late! Hoping that they figure things out and get this problem taken care of! At least there's nothing major though.

GLITTERGIRL said...

when we worked together, you always seemed to do well with sticking to the "subway for lunch" plan.

of course you got healthy sandwiches. i would go and get the fattiest thing on the menu.

glittermom said...

You can pretty much eat what you want , of course you want to stay aways from fast food and fatty foods...Its mainly portion control...If you just cut your portions by 1/3 then 1/2 you will lose weight...In weight watchers they showed us what a normal portion is...meat is the size of a deck of cards, etc...