I’ll admit that I was 5 minutes late to my doctor’s appointment this morning, but after I got there I had to wait 45 minutes before I was even allowed into the examination room. There I waited another 45 minutes while the staff ran around mispronouncing my name in an attempt to find my chart. When I finally got to see my doctor, he came in without my chart and had to ask me why I was there and where we had left things the last time I was in. The only thing they were (eventually) able to find was my blood work from last week that showed my cholesterol is still high, in spite of me losing about 30 pounds.

I weighed in at 226 today, which is just on the border of overweight/obese. Given the problems with my liver and cholesterol, my doctor thinks that I should try to get down to “normal” weight which is around 186. I know I’m not skinny, but I’m not entirely sure where all that weight is going to come from. He told me that if dropping another 40 pounds doesn’t work, I should probably start taking meds for it. Yay!

[Joe]

I need the smell of summer

and not driving a car, or on a mountain.

I was a the doctor’s office today for some test results, which turned out to be ok. I followed the doctor out to where I setup my next appointment. As I was walking, I started to feel dizzy and lightheaded. My vision became obscured by what looked like a color version of TV snow. This isn’t the first time this has happened to me, so I figured if I just leaned against the desk, it would pass. I very quickly found myself surrounded by an entire nursing/office staff and then shortly after, found myself on the floor, which is, I suppose, the order you want those things to happen. One of the nurses, who I recognized from church, claims to have been talking to me when this started happening, but I have no recollection of it. They checked my blood pressure, fed me and made me lay down for a while. After I returned to the proper color and an ample amount of time had passed, they finally let me go home.

So, what lesson did I learn? Don’t skip lunch, especially when you’re dieting. It’s been a while since I’ve done something this stupid/embarrassing, so it probably was about time for me. Good grief.

[Joe]