Life Of Michelle K

[Maid Marion]

I can do the chair challenge easily.  I think it is because I have a low center of gravity with my hips being wider than my chest.

Marion

[Michelle_K]

My provider at the local clinic wants to put me on statins to lower my cholesterol, when the problem is too low HDL. She never mentioned anything about my diet. I had been told earlier to try fish oil. She gave me homework to watch a video promoting statins. Mostly telling the benefits of using a statin. I watched all kinds of other videos, too. Learning that eating grapefruit interferes with the statin.

I don't know how it works. High cholesterol has a risk of cardio vascular disease. Estrogen has a risk of cardio vascular disease. Together it doubles the risk. I've already gotten the message from her, it is too much of a risk. No statin means no estrogen.

One video I watched had a challenge. That was to get a blood glucose reading before eating, and another one 20 minutes after eating a bowl of instant oatmeal. He said the glucose level should spike. It is the way the oatmeal is processed.
I accepted the challenge, and bought a meter. I can't start yet because The test strips were not included in the kit. It was stated that the lab test is a fasting test, and the reading after a meal will be way higher. I'm not diabetic, but the test kit may show that I am pre-diabetic.

Alice found out the hard way why sweet corn is called sweet corn. There is also field corn that is fed to livestock, and some is fermented to make the ethanol to mix with the gasoline.
Alice was not a blood relative, but related by marriage. She went to the corn carnival and had several ears of corn. She later tested her blood and her glucose was way up. She didn't understand how the sweet corn could do that. I didn't understand how she could be the way she was. When she visited she would waddle to our house, smoking a cigarette, and pulling her oxygen tank behind her.

Other videos showed how to lower my PSA levels. I mentioned the bladder stone might cause high PSA, I think the doctor said it doesn't. But it goes this way, the stone irritates my bladder which in turn irritates the prostate. Another way to lower PSA was to stop drinking the glass of water at bedtime, best to stop drinking liquids at least a couple hours before bedtime, and use the bathroom just before bedtime.
Michelle

[Maid Marion]

They don't seem to know what causes prostrate cancer.

Urination issues are a potential sign of prostrate cancer.

I see nothing wrong with drinking a lot of water to stay hydrated during warm weather.
Especially since I don't run the AC to keep my electric bills really low.  My last two bills were $49 and $52 in the high cost state of CT!

I'll get up and drink some water because I'm thirsty, use the bathroom, and go back to sleep. 

[Michelle_K]

I have an ancestry membership, and did my DNA through them. Now I found out that my scrawny beard is part of my German heritage. I wonder what else I inherited through my DNA.
VA had a DNA test available to tell how genetics might affect how prescription drugs might work, or not work. It might turn out that I have a gene that keeps my HDL low.

I have a allergy for nickel. I knew about it because a nickel coin in my pocket would irritate my skin, causing my leg to itch. I would think the cloth of the pocket would be enough to keep the coin from irritating. I had to retire a pair of earrings due to nickel touching my ear, the post was fine. Sitting back in deep thought I realized the pendant on my necklace was irritating. more thought about the back of my watch. And then realize the beaded chain of my dog tags was the reason for the marks on my neck. Maybe even nickel in the dog tags.
Thinking even further, now knowing about the nickel, the itchy legs while working on my car, is no longer a mystery. My legs would be against the chrome bumper, chrome being nickel.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

The bladder stone is to be removed in about a week. I was wondering if it could be put into a specimen jar to come home with me. Put it on display on a shelf.


I have an appointment with a podiatrist a couple of weeks after getting rid of the bladder stone. If I can remember, I might ask about differences between male and female feet. I don't look forward to this appointment. My VA provider referred me, after I remembered to have her check my yellow toenail.

In a couple of months, I have an appointment with a therapist for an autism evaluation session. Studying up for the test. I found out my light sensitivity could be due to autism. Maybe if I would have been allowed to wear sunglasses I would not have had daily headaches. Because of the daily headaches, I was on a daily aspirin regimen, even in the army. Even now, I need to wear blue light blocker glasses to avoid getting a headache. I need to remember to stop at the eye doctor, and get me some prescription sunglasses.
Interesting thought about welding, and being light sensitive. Not what I thought, the welding mask would cut the amount of light.
I want to get some kind of manuscript listing all kinds of stuff, including removing tags from my shirts.

I finally got the glucose test thing straightened out. Either the meter is way off, or something else is wrong. Even after eating a cupcake with my dinner, a hour later the meter showed me to be in the normal range. Having a hour drive to the VA in St Cloud, I might have had a stress related glucose level to put me at pre diabetes. I plan on doing a direct access diagnostic Walk In at the hospital, to see if anything changed in the past month.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

I was watching a video while eating. It mentioned doctors want you to eat before doing the blood test. Not to eat before a blood test. The instruction from the VA said I could eat before the test. I just realized I ate just before leaving for going to St. Cloud. So the test was done about a hour after eating.

The same as the 2005 blood test. I had eaten before going to the doctor, and right away he decided to do blood testing. I have high results reading from the fasting chart instead of the eating chart, and he sends me to a nutritionist.

Just checked, LDL is the same either way. So it doesn't matter that much, unless I had something sugary before the test that will raise my glucose. Looking at tests from different dates I got a bit confused and was using the wrong numbers. The latest test everything but the cholesterol, was mid range on the scales.
I did manage to get my glucose to spike, but it took 3 sugary snacks, and was still in the normal range.
It may be due to the low hormones that I have too low HDL. Exercise should raise it, but I haven't seen any change.
 The extra sugar added to any other sugar added during the day is still under the recommended max, and is only going to slow down my my weight loss. I'm now seeing 154 pounds on my scale.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

Doing some cleaning, going through boxes, getting things organized. One box I checked had the dollhouse furniture I was looking for. I took some time to put the furniture into the doll house, taking stuff out of the house that didn't belong there. The garage door for the dollhouse was in the box, so I don't have to think about making a garage door for the doll house. Some of the furniture looked like it was for even smaller dolls.
I had a habit of tossing the boxes that came from eBay. I would toss them out of my way after getting my order out of them. Cleaning up the boxes, recycle the bubble wrap, and flatten the boxes for the recycle bin.
Found my Tweety hoodie and my yellow polyester leisure jacket under the boxes. The Tweety hoodie needs a new zipper.
The leisure jacket has rust stains around where some snaps are, some snaps totally rusted away. It was in too bad of shape to take to the thrift shop with the pants, so the pants went separately. It looks like I might be able to change the front snaps from left over right, to right over left. Then take in the sides to be more form fitting. If It fails, no big loss.
Michelle

[Michelle_K]

Being about a week from the bladder stone surgery, I have some anxiety. I had a whole list of medications that I had to stop taking a week before the operation. Mostly blood thinners, All aspirin including the baby aspirin. What surprised me was the fish oil on the list. My understanding is that nicotine is also a blood thinner and the reason to stop smoking at least a week before surgery.

Nicotine being also a stimulant is used to control autism/adhd. Not desirable, but it seems the desired drug is in short supply and difficult to find. The law of supply and demand means the desired drug is overpriced.
Getting an autism/adhd diagnosis will not help much if no place can fill the prescription.

It appears estrogen has the same problem. Overpriced if you can find it.
I go to Good-Rx, search for estradiol Valerate and see the prices at the local pharmacies. Shocking to see Walgreens 50 dollars less than Walmart. Of course it is a generic, the brand name way too expensive.

My body is already feminized, I don't need estrogen for that. If I understood properly, I need estrogen to control body functions that the testosterone is supposed to control. My testosterone has been too low and not doing it's job properly. Testosterone is way more hazardous and result in changes I do not want. I have chosen estrogen to replace the missing testosterone, and keep my feminized body.

I could go on and on, but I think I better stop
Michelle