Computer Went Kaput; Body Going Kaput
Sue called me Wednesday morning to tell me her computer had died. I spoke to her later and she said her neighbor, who is a computer guru, had checked it out and it was half-way working, but resting at the time while she and her husband took advantage of the good weather and did some garden maintenance.
In the meantime, I’ve had a headache all week, and a sore gland in my neck which makes my ear hurt.
I saw the doctor for my regular check-up last Thursday and had blood taken as usual. I was in high hopes my triglycerides were coming down with the protocol I was on.
The doctor had increased my Niaspan ER from 500 mg at night to 1000 mg at night.
The problem with Niaspan is it causes flushing. This can make you itch, feel hot, get a rash or all three. If you take an aspirin before taking the Niaspan it’s supposed to help with these annoyances.
I did very well on the 500 mg tabs along with the over the counter fish oil capsules I have to take on doctor’s orders and the Tricor tablets that are supposed to control triglycerides.
The treatment started with fish oil capsules then went up to Tricor and then to Niaspan 500 mg. When that didn’t help get the levels down to a manageable number he increased the Niaspan to 1000 mg.
I would take the pill with the aspirin and soon added an atarax pill I use for allergic itching to help with that problem. A couple of hours after taking the larger dose I would look like a cooked lobster from my forehead to my feet and everything in between.
The itching was horrible and I was awake at night more than usual.
I called the doctor and told him of the problem and was told to discontinue the Niaspan and to take a prescription fish oil capsule along with the tricor and over the counter fish oil capsules.
With all this fish oil I was certain good things were happening. You can imagine my disappointment when I got the lab results back and the doctor informed me the triglycerides were even higher than before. The doctor put in a note to start taking 500 mg of niaspan again, but I didn’t have any on hand. All I had were 1000 mg, so I bit the bullet after I talked to Medco and explained why I needed to reactivate the 500 mg niaspan. I can’t cut the pill in half because it takes away the extended release action.
Medco agreed to send the 500 mg and I should receive it in 4-7 days. That is until I got the call yesterday telling me they can’t fill it because they have a later prescription for a higher dose. The problem with those calls is they never tell you what drug they are talking about and since I had sent six prescriptions to them last week I had to call to confirm what the message meant. It’s OK anyway, because I seem to be tolerating the higher dose now.
My blood sugar levels are excellent, my overall cholesterol is pretty good, my good cholesterol is about half what it should be and my bad cholesterol cannot be measured because my triglycerides are so high.
OK, I can’t do the treadmill anymore since I tore my knee up the last time. The Ritis brother Arthur is bothering my back and I’m on pain meds for Mr. Ritis.
The only thing I can do is control my diet, which I admit I hadn’t been doing.
Now, since we have two grandchildren at our house on a daily basis for an hour or so and at night every other week-end, we keep goodies on hand for them to snack on.
Most of the time I don’t snack and am not crazy about cookies, cakes, chips etc. But yesterday my husband and grandson went to the grocery store and bought a bunch of goodies and they keep staring me in the face.
I heard how wonderful the Pringles pickle flavored chips were and resisted them until a few minutes ago when I was starving and wanted something to eat. I didn’t particularly care for them so I tried the cheddar of some special name. What I didn’t know was the cheddar flavor has hot pepper flavor in it and burned my mouth, so that was put up quite quickly.
I went to the refrigerator to get a glass of 1% milk and decided against it because it isn’t organic. Now I’m not particular about what I eat but I like organic milk because it has a better flavor and seems more full-bodied. Instead I found regular 1% milk, which I will probably not use.
So here I sit, full of fat in my circulatory system, my stomach empty and nothing to eat even though the house is loaded with food.
I’m supposed to be a blogger and give you my take on the news, but the fact is I don’t care what’s in the news right now and will not cover the presidential campaign until September.
I don’t care who said what to whom. All I care about are the positions the various candidates are taking on issues I care about.
I won’t vote for Obama but it’s not because he’s black. It’s because he wants us to be in a more socialist society than we are in now and wouldn’t blink to raise our taxes to pay for it.
I won’t vote for Hillary and that’s all I need to say about that. Anything else I would have to say would violate my own rules of not speaking sarcastically about a national figure.
So I’m stuck with McCain whether I like it or not and it’s because he is more likely to hold the same beliefs on most of the issues I care about. I probably disagree with him more than I agree with him, but I disagree with less of him than I do the others.
When is the last time we have been in such a position in our country? Where is our modern day George Washington or Abraham Lincoln? I’m sure we have one but he just doesn’t want to drag himself and his family through all the mud necessary to serve his country. I use the generic male gender.
Anyway, if anyone has a cure for lowering triglycerides I’ll be glad to hear them.
Written by ~J~
