Showing posts with label cholesterol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cholesterol. Show all posts

Wednesday 23 December 2015

Another Annual Check

Well, another year has gone by.  Actually, it's more than a year as the annual appointment was slipped by three weeks by the Churchill, and I attended there on Tuesday this week for my "MoT".  I was very impressed by the fact that the results were posted on PatientView at 6pm after being done at 1130am that same day!

The only slight worry I've had this year is that my creatinine went up at the six month point in June.  I think this was for two reasons: firstly, Tim and I reckon that creatinine varies through the day; you need to be well hydrated and, for a consistent comparison, have the sample taken at the same sort of time of day each time.  Annoyingly I forgot this when I made the appointment with my new GP's surgery in June and so it was not surprising that, at 8.50am, after just a bowl of cereal and a single cup of tea in the previous 10 hours, the reading was quite high, at 140. (They also did a cholesterol test even though I had not been fasting, so that was unsurprisingly very high.)

Secondly, the hospital's message about drinking more somehow seemed (to me) to be directed at the recipient more than the donor, and also it seemed to be "for a period of time" as opposed to "for ever"; I guess I was consuming only 1.5 to 2 litres per day in the form of tea and coffee.  So in late September I discussed fluid intake with the transplant nurse at the Churchill (as lovely and helpful as ever!) and we decided that I just need to drink more.  Since then, I have made a concerted effort to drink water, and also now I monitor how much I drink every day; I now have more like 1 to 1.5 litres as tea/coffee, and about the same in pure water, so my daily total is about 2.5 litres.  I discussed this with the consultant and he was happy with only 2 litres as a target, comprising half tea or coffee and half water or cordial.  He was clear on the need to avoid any drinks with salt (like what - Bovril or Tequila?), and even agreed that beer can count to the total, so long as you are staying within a limit of three units of alcohol per day on average - I reckon I average two units, although I admit to the occasional day in the summer when I had a couple of treble G&Ts or a couple of beers in the evening sunshine!

Having realized this in October and changed my habits for liquid intake, I have been hoping to see a decent improvement in things and I was pleased at a reading of 127 which is only 1 more than a year ago.  If I'm honest I would say that I was hoping for an even lower figure, having been so conscientious about my hydration; perhaps my focus on that is too late?

At least my worries about aches, pains and tiredness do now seem to be a function of age - I was worried that some of them were sounding a bit like Tim's symptoms before the transplant!

My blood pressure was good at 120/79 - the consultant expressed envy of that! Everything else was in the range apart from cholesterol.  He asked what I had done about this after last year's promise to see my GP about that; the answer was I had forgotten but my record showed that I had seen the GP in February - then I remembered that I had declined statins (as I reckon they make me sleep badly from a previous trial) and instead had made a few changes to my diet - less sugar, more skimmed milk, cutting fat off meat etc.  However, he thinks I should see the GP again as it's still a bit high.  Apart from that, hopefully that's it for another year.

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Friday 9 August 2013

Cholesterol Postscript

There was one rather nice thing recently - I was told the results of my blood test early in July.  The result was VERY good - my cholesterol has gone down from 6.8 in March, to 4.7 which is on the right side of 5!  Now, considering that I have given up just a few things and taken only a little bit more care with what I cook and eat, I think that's a remarkable result.  I have to thank my other half for that, really, as she is the one who knows how much saturated fat there is in everything.

I've not taken any more of that Atorvastatin stuff (which caused me sleeplessness) and so I feel quite justified in that decision.

Meanwhile, the HTA interview is now fixed for September.  That was more difficult than it sounds, as the interviewer only gave the hospital one date and time rather than a choice, which is normal.  Since I have to travel from the wilds of Oxfordshire to a London suburb, a 9.00am start was not really on and, in any case, I had asked for a time of 12.00 or later to allow for me to travel by train at the cheaper rate (and I'm paying!!). So the transplant nurse requested some alternatives for me and the reply was 11.00am on the same day!  So we went round the houses again, and at last had a choice of three dates and times.

I'm now expecting the letter with all the details of that; I think I have to demonstrate something about my close ties with my brother, like a family photo album.  Now given that I have lots of brothers and there are four who are closer to me in age than Tim (who is seven years younger than me), it is hardly surprising that there are relatively few photos that show us together. I just hope that the interviewer is more understanding at the job than in arranging appointments.  After all, if you were told to find the two related people in a crowd of a hundred, you would pick the two of us out without difficulty!

Tuesday 25 June 2013

More on Cholesterol

I mentioned my cholesterol blood test a while back (see this entry) and I realize that I never updated on what happened next: the surgery rang me and said that the GP wanted to see me about it! This was despite having been told by them that I was NORMAL and they had confirmed no further action was required. So I asked the obvious questions "Has he seen the test result? Is this really necessary?" which was all too much for them.  Clearly they are not accustomed to people asking questions, but after two such phone calls I gave in and made an appointment with the GP.

He got off to a bad start by saying "we've had this letter from a hospital in London which asks us..." at which I said "yes, I know, I myself gave that to the nurse when I had the blood test".  (In fact I virtually had to force it on her.)  Anyway, it turns out that my overall cholesterol level had fallen and was indeed now acceptable, but the low density cholesterol (the worst sort) was 3.5 and the letter said "If LDL > 3 ..."  So we had a long chat about this - he was pretty unhappy about being asked to do something by someone else - and I agreed to take the Atorvastatin stuff for three months and then do another fasting blood test to see if it did any good.

Well, I've only finished the first month of the prescription for Atorvastatin and I'm not taking any more until I've seen the GP again.  The leaflet says that one of the possible side effects is sleeplessness; I suffered several dreadful nights whilst taking it, so I've stopped and - hey! I've been sleeping pretty well!

Friday 5 April 2013

Another Little Detail I had Forgotten!

I had forgotten to record that, when we met the surgeon at the hospital, she also asked for a fasting blood test to check my cholesterol level.  I arranged this at my local surgery and it was done quite quickly (and without bruising).  My blood pressure was taken at the same time and was 113/72 (or something like that) which is the lowest I have ever seen it.  I then left the surgery and popped into the adjacent coffee shop for a large latte and a lovely bit of cake, having had no breakfast.  I then entirely forgot about the test and it was only over the Easter weekend that I remembered that I had not had the results. 

Now, a previous GP explained the cholesterol graphs to me about nine years ago.  My understanding then was that it is almost impossible at my weight and age to be in the "Normal" part of the graphs.  Hence it was no real deal to be told that I was in the "Caution" sector at that time - I was just happy that I wasn't in "Danger"!

Consequently it was with some trepidation that I rang the surgery last Tuesday to ask for the result.  I was amazed to be told that the test was "Normal", and no further action is required.  Perhaps they really mean "Normal for your age and weight"?  It is not the first time I have had that said to me - see this blog about my ultrasound last July.  That's a bit more believable but it is still far better than what I was expecting.  So, I really am FIT.