I was devastated when I went along to my Doctors last year suffering from headaches, after chatting with her and going through the usual rigmarole, she arranged for me to have some blood tests done, “we will see what the result find she said, but for now, take two Ibuprofen tablets and two paracetomol, this will help until we find out if there is anything causing them?
Well, guess what, like everyone does I didn’t ring for the result! I went on Holiday instead, that’s more like it huh, yeah, holidaying in Lanzarote is more important.
Three weeks after returning from my wonderful holiday I decided I should ring and find out the results of my blood test, Just in case! “Oh yes Mrs Best the Doctor wants to see you can you come along 9:30am Monday morning”, “Yes, I can do that”, I said.
I am now sitting in the waiting room apprehensive and wondering what they have found in my blood! What could it be, I’m never ill, why now? I feel great, I feel normal, can’t be much?
“Come in”, the Doc called, I sat down while she fiddled on the computer. “Mmm, you have High Cholesterol” she told me, High Cholesterol, what does that mean?
“It means you have and increased chance of having a heart attack, or stroke”.
She then took my blood pressure and did some figures and came to the conclusion that I had a 13% chance of having a heart attack or stroke in the next ten years!
Me, little me, there’s nothing of me how can I have high cholesterol? how did I get it? How long have I had it? I can’t have it I eat healthy, I hardly eat meat, I don’t eat many cream cakes, well, rarely, I enjoy a beer or drop of wine but not excessively! I exercise, my god! I can’t have high cholesterol, I was devastated, I had never until now, had any health issues, and now here I was facing up to maybe popping pills for the rest of my life.
We then went through my weekly diet, my alcohol intake and exercise.
The doc then decided after adding my blood pressure to the volume of HDL and LDL, (Low Density Cholesterol, and High Density Cholesterol) and being a non smoker and considering my blood pressure was absolutely spot on, she was not going to prescribe statin tablets, as she thought I could try to bring it down on my own! Well, at least that’s a start for me to get on the right road again, I felt like I’d been given a second chance, at what though, living longer of course, Oh yeah, of course.
She gave me a piece of A4 paper with foods listed in three columns stating, once a week, twice a week and rarely, she said she would see me in a year’s time. I thanked her and left the surgery.
I was depressed, angry, frustrated and bewildered, how was I supposed to manage this cholesterol on my own, I didn’t know anything about it I had heard of it but never really knew the ins and outs of it. This sort of thing happened to others not to me, me, I’m still having problems coming to terms with the fact that I have high cholesterol.
Has anyone else been told they have high cholesterol? Are you or were you as bewildered and in the dark as I was? How I would like to hear from you!
When I got home I sat down with a cup of tea hubby made me and thought hard about my predicament, then I decided I needed to find out more about this medical setback.
A few days later I went into boots for some other items I needed and while I was waiting in the queue I noticed a book on cholesterol, I picked up and bought it, I came home and read it through from start to finish, by this time I was beginning to have a better idea of what cholesterol was.
The one sheet of paper the Doctor gave me had various foods I should not eat and listed foods I should eat, like polyunsaturated, monounsaturated, why these? What was the difference, how would I know, I just cook it and eat it I don’t look at the labels what’s in it why would I? Do you?
So, after buying this little book I was a bit wiser, not a lot but a bit. And to my shock and horror!!! I read in this book that if you eat a healthy diet and exercise fairly regularly you may have an inherited gene of cholesterol known as Familial Hypercholesterolemia, known as FH. Meaning its past down from your parents to the siblings a gift from mum or dad that I never knew about, bless them, which means however much you exercise or eat healthy you will suffer with cholesterol and may have to take drugs to regulate it, and one way of telling if you have Familial Cholesterol is by looking at the eye, it causes a white ring around the outside right on the edge of your coloured part of the eye be it blue, brown or green, if you have this then you need to get a check up believe me I have it so I know. If you want to fight it or avoid it like I have follow my blogs.
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