Medical Update

I'm fat and fabulous. Got my quarterly lab reports last week. Liver, blood sugar, blood pressure check, check and check. Cholesterol is too high but I don't drink and I don't smoke and I don't take recreational drugs so god help you if you get in between me and my ice cream. I'm currently not anemic because I've been remembering my iron pills most days. My health care provider wants to start me on low-dose Lipitor if I can't get my cholesterol down in three months. I may or may not agree to that. I'm about maxed out in the number of pills and vitamins and supplements I can remember to take every day.

My viral load is undetectable and my T-Cells are a robust 987.

I have no sexually transmitted diseases (discounting The AIDS) which makes sense because I don't really have sex anymore. That was a cry for help shrouded in a dispassionate statement.

I had the sense to discuss the extreme foot pain I've been experiencing the last six months with my care provider. I hadn't mentioned it here but it's been getting progressively worse. It started in the morning but soon became an all day thing. Lately any time I got up from a seated position I was literally hobbling from one room to the next. She asked several questions about the pain, the severity and the time of day and immediately diagnosed Plantar Fasciitis. After reading up I think she's exactly right. Since I took so long to seek treatment, the pain I was experiencing radiated from my heels through the bottoms of both feet. I was also experiencing ankle and shin pain as I attempted to "walk different" to alleviate the pain. I finally spoke up when I realized that it was getting harder and harder to walk anywhere and getting up and down the stairs, let alone out of bed, had become excruciating.

She prescribed a two week course of anti-inflammatory medication that did the trick in one day. I'm currently experiencing only mild discomfort after exercising or bike riding, and I'm waking up out of bed with no discomfort at all. Curiously, the main causes of the condition in middle aged patients are either recreational athletics or a large weight gain. Let's all be kind and assume it's the biking, shall we?

In other news, The Holy Terror I call Riley has torn through two fitted sheets and a futon cover. He has left puncture holes in every pillow on the couch and bed. He has eaten a tube of toothpaste, a sandal, a tube of apricot/cucumber facial mask and an entire nectarine. He graciously gave back the pit.