It’s probably about time I put this out there, and I’m feeling much more ok with all of it now, so it’s the right time.

About 3 and a half weeks ago, I went to the doctor for a rash on my arm that wouldn’t go away. The rash had been there since March, and it was June. Our insurance changed (again) in January, and I hadn’t been sick in at least a year (the power of healthy diets) so I hadn’t seen my new doctor yet. It took forever to get an appointment. I went in there frankly pretty annoyed and angry that they make new patients wait so long to be seen, but otherwise relatively calm.

The nurse took my blood pressure. It was high. Ick. This is not something I’ve dealt with since the pre-eclampsia days. Every time a doctor took my blood pressure since then, I got ridiculously nervous, and it was fine. This time I didn’t feel very nervous, and it was high. So then the doctor comes in and asks when I’m going to quit smoking and I tell her I was planning on it very soon. She tells me she can put me on medicine for it if I want and to let her know. Then she’s on about my blood pressure and how concerned she is about it being so high and what the cause of that could be. Then she finally looks at my rash. I explain to her that I get rashes like this constantly that are very hard to get rid of, and when one goes away, it isn’t long before I get another. This one seemed to be pretty much resistant to anything at all over the counter. Before I know it she’s telling me I need to be tested for lupus. And that I need to have my cholesterol checked. At this point, she rechecks my blood pressure and it’s even higher. Well come on, you just said I needed to be tested for an incurable disease! Of course it was higher!

So off I went for bloodwork, and then got sent home with a steroid and an antihistimine that tried to kill me (allergic reactions suck), and a mission to check my blood pressure in pharmacies all week and return with the results.

And yes, then the antihistamine tried to kill me, so I stopped taking it. And as I was pounding water to try to counteract it, I decided if ever there were a time to stop drinking caffeine, this was it. The steroids did clear the rash up. Some lovely scarring from a rash that was there for 3 months, but at least the rash was gone.  My blood pressure was mostly pretty good all week. Then I went back and she told me the steroids can lower your blood pressure. And it was high again in the office. So I would be going to take my blood pressure for another week (which ended up being even lower and more normal.)

She decided we should do a ton more bloodwork, and an EKG. As far as the rash goes, the plan is that if it comes back or a new one like it develops, she’ll be sending me to a dermotologist to have it biopsied and test further for lupus. Thankfully at this point that doesn’t look necessary. I asked for the Chantix to quit smoking… may as well have help and just get it done if there’s reasons to be worried about my health, right?

So here we are two and a half weeks later and I finally have all of the test results. The EKG was perfect, cbc good, cmp (sugar, liver and kidney, etc) was good, thyroid good, ANA (this is one of the lupus tests) was normal. Cholesterol was my only issue. My good cholesterol is low. Bad cholesterol is fine. So I have to increase my cardio (with how much exercising I do already that may kill me) and take omega 3 fatty acids. She won’t be rechecking it for a year, so I’m guessing it isn’t that low, just enough that I need to correct it. It doesn’t surprise me, considering I hate fish and on this diet I eat hardly any other foods that contain it because I just can’t. So a supplement it is. I haven’t had a cigarette in a week and a half. I’m still fighting the habit parts of it, the medicine removes actual cravings for the nicotine, but it’s hard to change so many routines all at once. It’s going to take some time before I feel completely normal again. I go back in about 2 weeks to have my blood pressure taken, discuss the chantix, and have a pap. I’m apparently going to get the total clean bill of health by the time she’s done with me. And that’s fine.

I think what struck me the hardest right when this started is that I felt like such a healthier person since starting this diet almost a year ago. I changed my entire lifestyle with diet and exercise, and thought I was so healthy because of it. It’s shocking to walk into the doctor’s office feeling like that, and finding out it couldn’t be further from the truth. But after a few weeks it turns out I am pretty healthy, and I’ve elminated pretty much all of my unhealthy habits. No caffiene, no nicotine, no extra yummy food I shouldn’t have… It’s a little hard to grasp that the only things I really get a rise out of anymore are exercise and love (endorphins rock!), but at least I get to keep the best two things to get that kick from.

I talk to much. But that’s basically where I’ve been lately. I’ve been here, but I’ve been tired, and busy wrapping my mind around all of this. I feel clearer now. It’s a good feeling.