1.
At one GP followup last year, my blood pressure was slightly high, so she ordered an ECG to check my heart, even though she was pretty sure it was most likely weight-related.
The results of the test showed a patent foramen ovale. It’s a hole between the atria of the heart that usually seals up after birth. For something like a quarter of people, that doesn’t happen. I think it might also be the reason I get so dizzy when I cough too much or sneeze a lot. Or I could be completely off on that.
It’s generally not problematic, though there’s a slight–from what I’ve found, very slight– possibility of a blood clot passing through and making its way to the brain, and it seems like surgery is usually not considered unless there are other reasons for it. So, my GP prescribed baby aspirin.
2.
My weight loss hadn’t been working well, and I’d been looking into possible solutions in addition to metformin, and one that came up a few times was to combine metformin with birth control–one to regulate insulin and one to regulate hormones. Sounded like the best bet.
In March, I talked to my OB and mentioned that I’d looked into maybe starting pills again. She said that probably wouldn’t be an issue, and then looked at my info and asked about why I was taking aspirin, and I told the story about the blood pressure, the test, and the hole.
Her response was that pills were out of the question, as was any other hormonal treatment. She said that if the aspirin were just for high blood pressure, she could suggest something other than pills, but because of what it was, nope.
I asked if she had any other suggestions, and she shrugged and said to try exercising longer.
3.
When snow and ice come, I wear sturdy boots so that I don’t slip and fall on my ass. Or hurt myself worse than that. I switch back to sneakers when the ice gets brittle and starts to crackle, and most of the snow has melted to leave mushy grass and mud.
This year, I switched to my sneakers, and I started getting pain in my right foot. Then Rob and I went to Iceland, walked around a lot in Reykjavik, and my foot would scream in pain when I put my weight on it. Same thing in England.
I saw my GP after we returned, and she referred me to a podiatrist. I got X-rays of my foot, and nothing looked bad there. The doctor pressed and poked at my feet and said I have a neuroma–growth on the nerve, or something like that.
He suggested I try orthotics, so I tried for two weeks and went back, still with pain. The options then were shots–cortisol or alcohol–or laser treatments.
I tried cortisol shots. Four shots, one every two weeks. Still painful, and some slight pain starting to develop in my left foot. He gave me different orthotics, and I tried those for a couple weeks.
I got impressions of my feet for custom orthotics, and I’ve been wearing them for about four weeks, then had a followup. They were causing some pain, and when the doctor checked, they hadn’t been sitting right. So they’ve been sent back, and I’ll have another appointment in about three weeks.
But because of the pain, I haven’t been able to exercise much. Any sort of vigorous movement in my foot exacerbates the pain, whether I’m using the rowing machine or the treadmill. Even relatively light exercise like stretching can be painful the next morning. And I don’t mean the usual sore-from-exercise pain, I mean actual ow-I-can’t-stand pain.
I started the year at 240, and my weight’s fluctuated up and down between those numbers, sometimes above to about 244, sometimes down to 236, but it likes to sit around 239(when I originally wrote this about 2 months ago, I was down to 236, but fluctuations happened).
I’m losing weight, slowly, but I’d really like to be able to bump that up a bit.
