Monday Check-In on Health & Work Progress – Vlog Challenge Day 8

Ok, a lot of what I covered in the Vlog is general, health issues, and just basics about what I’m working on as I get stronger. So for those of you looking for non-personal stuff, feel free to skip this post. For my other friends….

It always takes me a while to figure out how to imbed these dang videos! Note to self: WRITE DOWN HOW TO DO IT!

For those who know I’ve been ill, here’s the latest:

Internist attached me to a holter monitor for 24 hours and sent me to the Cardiologist for a stress test because my EKG was abnormal. Cardiologist says my heart’s pumping strong and that an abnormal EKG may be normal for me…shocker! Follow up in 6 months to see.

On the internist testing side: He ran bloodwork and a UA when I went in to start with and said I had a trace amount of bacteria and blood in my urine. I’ve also been having bladder spasms and burning for about two weeks. So, between that and the fact that four of six markers said I have a UTI, he gave me a shot of penicillin and a 10-day dose of Cipro.

I hate taking antibiotics unless absolutely necessary, especially for UTI’s because I’m running out of ones that are effective. I’m allergic to sulfa drugs and I became immune to Trimethoprim a few years back. But, since mega doses of water, cranberry juice and even my Uva Ursi hadn’t taken care of this one, I agreed.

A week later, bloodwork showed that I had high blood sugar, low sodium, low vitamin D (even though I take 4,000 IU per day), low Magnesium, and a low white blood cell count. Because of this stuff, he ran more blood and another UA.

Last week, he said that my blood sugar showed normal over the past 6 months so he’s just kinda keeping an eye on that. My sodium was still low but the viscosity was good so he says keep drinking the electrolyte stuff and adding salt to my diet and we’ll have to watch for anything else that might be causing it. Has no idea why my white blood cell count is low. He said it should have been high because I was sick with the flu when they ran the blood and my body should have been fighting that…not the first time my body hasn’t been fighting off issues either.

So again, we’re watching it in 6 months.

The bladder issues. The second UA still showed bacteria, but a different kind than the first one. This stuff hasn’t happened since I had my kid 27 years ago. At that time, my Urologist ran tests to see if my bladder was backing up into the tube that used to lead to my left kidney (that one was removed when I was 5…congenital defect). That wasn’t happening. So he put me on low-dose antibiotics for a little over a year, and then off and on since then (which is why the Trimethoprim no longer works for me). But, it kept me bladder infection free for a lot of years.

So now I’m working on an appointment to see a Urologist here. It’s tremendously frustrating to find a Urologist who not only is respected and liked by their patients, but who also can get you into their office before April, especially while all the “Snowbirds” are out here!! As of now, I have an appointment on March 7. I’ll follow up on that one later.

The good news is, that with the exception of the bladder stuff, I appear to be in very good health! I even managed to get my triglycerides down from about 370 to 140, AND my cholesterol is back below 200. Not much below, but I’ll take it. And he added that I should walk 30 minutes a day to get my good cholesterol up higher (along with a few other “over 40” issues it can prevent). 🙂

So right now, I’m taking walks every day (much easier to do now that I’m off the truck for a while), working on my tax return information so I can STAY off the truck for a bit to see if I can get my business income to replace that job and not have to go back at ALL, having my VAs put together some more lenses for me, and putting my Niche Research Packs together so I can run a WSO soon!

Getting stronger personally and financially….THAT’S the goal!

Until then…