Now I Have No Choice

I'm feeling much better since my doctor took me off the statin drugs. I know he is going to want me to go back on them but I really don't want to. I need to find a better way to keep my cholesterol under control.

After looking around on the internet for information on this subject I found that once again it all comes down to the same old same old. Diet and exercise. Hear that Richard? Diet and exercise. Is it ever anything else? No. It never is.

Now I have a really important reason to stay on track and exercise every day. Not that wanting to lose weight isn't a good reason but now I have a real health reason that is staring me in the face. I have to lower my cholesterol. My test reading was 256 with LDL of 182. These are high numbers for someone who is a vegetarian but as Dr Bob reminded me both my mother and my father had high blood pressure and high cholesterol. It's in my genes.

So...It will be oatmeal every morning for breakfast now because I have read that just eating oatmeal every day can bring those numbers down. Lunch and dinner will have to be filled with fresh and crunchy veggies. Back to salads. Easy on the bread (kill me now) and snacking will be fruits and nuts. Boring but healthy.

I will get back to exercising every day. Yesterday it was Party Off The Pounds (Hi Laura) and today it will be Disco Sweat. Doing videos in my living room seems to work better for my plantar fasciitis. I'm hoping to get back to the track once I get my new $400 (that is not covered by insurance) orthotics. They should be ready on Friday. Every time I don't feel like exercising I will think about my very high cholesterol and do what I have to do. Now, I have no choice.

I don't know who I am but I'm not myself

I haven't been feeling well lately. Like my mom used to say "I don't know who I am but I am not feeling myself". I'm pretty sure it's got something to do with the new medications that I'm on. At least I hope that is what it is.

I finally called my doctor yesterday and gave him all of my complaints. Very tired, muscle aches, jelly legs, zoning out and generally not feeling right. We are changing up my meds to see if we can figure it all out. We are thinking that the muscle weakness and pains are due to the Zocor and the zoning out and general weirdness is from too much Lisinopril.

Starting today I am cutting the Lisinopril in half and I'm off the Zocor completely. I will continue this for two weeks and then reintroduce the Zocor and see how I feel. Hopefully I will feeling like my old self very soon.

I'm also worried about Rigby. He seems to have developed a bit of a limp. It's his driver side rear. It's more pronounced when he is on the bed. He doesn't seem to be in any pain but I see the leg being held up when he gets up to get off the bed. He is much better on the hard floor but of course, he won't stay there. He's a bed dog. My vet retired so I don't even have a good vet to take him to not to mention the money issues. I don't think I could take it again. Not another sick dog so soon. I'm still not over Mac.

Baby It's Cold Outside

34 degrees? What is that? It's not supposed to get that cold here. I just got in from taking Rigby out and even with 4 layers of clothes on I was freezing. I live in South Florida. I'm not meant to hear numbers like 34. I can't deal. Man, it's cold out there.

I did the deadly deed this morning. I turned on the heat. Being a Floridian means that you NEVER turn on the heat. It's sacrilegious. It's just not done. If Pat was here he would flip out and turn it off. He works for the power company and feels it is never cold enough to use electric heat here in South Florida. I wait for him to leave and then turn it on. Screw that no heat stuff.

Kerry is in Gainesville which is even colder than it is here. They were down in the low 20's this morning so I'm sure my phone will ring very soon. I usually get a whining phone call from her when it is cold out. Yeah, Peewee. Tell me how you are going to move to Chicago or Seattle. Yeah, right.

Rigby is the only one who is happy with the weather and that won't last long either. He has an appointment with the groomer today. He will be cut short as usual and if this keeps up even he will be cold. He loves the cold weather though. Mac did too. I call it Lhasa Apso weather. It's weather that only Lhasa Apsos could love. The cold brings them back to their roots of living in the Tibetan mountains hanging out with the monks.

I gotta go take Rigby now, then it's off to yoga and then off to work if I don't freeze to death first. See ya....

My Fantastic Birthday

I had a wonderful birthday. So wonderful, in fact, that it totally blew me away. I heard from everyone in some way and I want to thank you all.

Pat, thanks for the balloons, flowers, strawberries, the card and well, you know. :)

Kerry, thanks for the phone calls, for making me laugh and reminding me how much you love me :)

Michele, thanks for the song you sang to me. I saved it on my phone :)

Jon, thanks for the three messages and well wishes. They were great :)

Cousin Stevie, thanks for feeling bad about not knowing. You totally made up for it by putting a reminder into your cell phone so you will know next year.:)

Richard, thanks for the email. It made me feel special as you always do :)

Laura, thanks for the call. You made me feel better about all my medical things :)

Bethy, thanks for the call and sweet birthday wishes:)

Vennie, thanks for the present. I totally loved it. So did Rigby :)

Ang, thanks for announcing my birthday on your blog.The post was wonderful :)

Becky, thanks for the funny birthday email. I had a great laugh :)

Annie, thanks for the email. You are the best :)

Juliana, thanks for the birthday hug and the peaceful vibes you gave me :)

Lisa, thanks for the birthday card and gift. :)

To all of my ladies: Marie, Geri, Joan, Andrea, Janet, Marie, Dina, Wendy, Paula and everyone else, thanks for remembering with lottery tickets, cards, phone calls and birthday wishes. You all make working worth while. :)

All of my clubhouse friends, thanks for the happy birthday thread :)

The Yoga Source, thanks for the free yoga class. It was so peaceful :)

Oh yeah, Paul, thanks for being there for me for all these years. Whatever would I do without my obsession with you? :)

Yep, I'm living up to the name of my blog. Lucky me! I'm lucky to have all of you in my life. I love you all.