Monday, September 6, 2010

And So I Add Another Pill

Had a doctor's appt. last Monday. He still loves me. He ran some blood tests.

Thyroid is good.

Vitamin D level is good.

Cholesterol - Bad. HDL and triglycerides are awesome, but that $%* LDL - crept up to 191. That's pretty dang high. My doc is very cautious about treating cholesterol, but that number got his attention.

Phone calls from your doctor on a Saturday morning are never good. Ever noticed that?

He was sweet, though, and said "It's nothing you are doing. Your body just makes LDL because of your family history." It's like he read my last post or something!

And so last night I began a low dose (10 mg) of simvastatin. I really wanted to avoid cholesterol meds, but I guess that was not meant to be. Hopefully it can be short term use - I don't know if that's normal, but it is something I'm going to ask for.

Plus, it wasn't a fasting cholesterol. I had eaten breakfast already. I thought cholesterol had to be a fasting number?

I'm a little bummed. More evidence that my body doesn't work all that well.

3 comments:

  1. Hopefully your doctor is taking the cholesterol ratio into account. If your HDL is high it can counteract the LDL and give you an overall better count. Cholesterol meds aren't the end of the world, and yes, you probably will be on them as a preventative measure for a long time. It sounds like you really need to relax and think of controlling your diabetes as a marathon, not a sprint.

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  2. He is taking the ratio into account, and the HDL was good, but he felt it was time.

    I hate marathons. It's a good analogy, though. But thinking of it as a marathon just makes me hate it even more. :)

    I just have a really really hard time with the fact that this isn't going to go away. I just want to be normal.

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  3. Oh, I am with you on hating this marathon and wanting to be normal. Counting the blessings of modern technology and medicines just doesn't help me feel better about diabetes sometimes. I didn't mean to sound preachy when I said that you need to relax. I guess I was talking to myself as well. Thanks for your comments.

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