Thursday, December 4, 2008

Doctor Visit

Overall - I'd have to say that my first year follow up is pretty good. There are things that I wish were better, but we'll take our blessings and run too.

My vitamin levels are okay - that is to say that my B12 and Folate are better (seriously... what's up with my LACK of energy!!) than they were 6 months ago. My vitamin D level has tanked though - so I've been given a prescription to take to a compound pharmacy - for a monthly supplement.

I am upping my daily vitamin (Flintstones) to three a day instead of two a day. I'll go back in a month and figure out what needs to be retested there.

My thyroid level is still not exactly where it should be - so we've added another 1/2 dose to my current prescription... this might help with my energy levels... so there's some hope there!

My cholesterol has gone down... so a big WOO HOO on that one. I'm still considering adding those new Promise Activ Supershots yogurt smoothie drinks to my regimen. Just to get it down even further...

My blood pressure looked really good - and that was after a Starbucks - so I'm happy with that. I felt a little jittery - so ummm... I figure that it might be lower when I go back in a month. I've got to remember - no Starbucks on that day. I'm thinking that might be a New Year's resolution for me - to only have the Bux once or twice a month. So we'll see how that goes in January.

The newest change is for my Hemoglobin A1C (an average of your blood glucose over a period of time) - before I started this whole process my level was a 9.0... it had come down some before surgery, but just for reference - in order to have a healthy pregnancy and/or not be considered a diabetic the level needs to be 6.0 or below. Right now, my level is 6.9... we're the closest I've been to 6.0 since 2002 - so this is certainly progress my friends!

So in order to try to push things along - I'm going back on a twice daily shot. The medication is called Byetta - it is not insulin... it is a drug that helps your body make more of it's own insulin. Here's how it works:
  • It signals the pancreas to make the right amount of insulin after you eat. It also helps prevent high blood glucose levels after you eat... which helps lower your overall level closer to normal.
  • It also stops the liver from making too much glucose when your body does not need it.
  • It may reduce your appetite and the amount of food you eat - this actually cracks me up, but the result for most patients is weight loss... so I'm totally up for that!!
  • It helps slow down how quickly food and glucose leave the stomach... this helps prevent high glucose levels after you eat as well.

The only bad thing is that for the first week - you can experience some bad nausea and side effects while you get used to the drug being in your system. Overall we believe that this might help me get things a little more into the range that is needed for pregnancy, and overall health. I did get the referral (or they are working on it) to see the endocrinologist... so I'll be getting his opinion about this as well.

The best news of the day was that my highest weight was 1 pound higher on his records than what I gave myself credit for... so when I get home tonight - I'll be changing my ticker!! Give me credit for losing that one additional pound please... (**Update - already done... official loss is 88 pounds)

If things haven't started rolling again by the time I see him in early January - I'm totally going to be exploring other things that could be wrong, but for now - we'll see how the additional thyroid medication and the Byetta work to help me in achieving my goals.

4 comments:

  1. It's wild how things differ from doc to doc. I was taking two Flintstones a day and on my 6 month followup was told I should be taking FOUR a day instead.

    Glad to hear things went well! Now we just need to get your energy up!

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  2. You look great and have lost lots of weight that is for sure!!!

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  3. Sounds pretty good to me. Will you still be able to take this stuff if you get pregnant?

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  4. Sounds like the doc is happy to help you meet those goals... awesome!

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