I'm really terrible at post titles. I mean, starting with a title of "Health Update" sounds ominous. Is something wrong? Was something wrong but now there's good news? It's actually none of the above.
I had my annual physical recently, and my doctor said I'm in great shape. In his follow-up report after receiving the blood test results, he wrote that I'm in "very good health" with my liver, kidneys, thyroid, etc. all normal and to come back in a year. This all sounds great, but I'm not completely convinced. First, my weight is up 6 pounds from last year. Now, I wouldn't recommend attending two holiday parties and a food testing event in the days before my physical, but I don't think that accounts for a 6-pound gain. Plus, while my total cholesterol (171) is in the okay range, my LDL, or bad cholesterol, is at 112 which falls into the high range.
I saw the results on the doctor's online portal before the medical assistant or physician assistant called me. He shared the note from the doctor about my good health, and I asked him about the LDL number. The PA/MA said that I need to exercise more, have more salad, and eat less chips and fried foods. How does he know about my eating habits? I mean, I'm helping the economy and saving money by buying chips/salty snacks that are on sale at Costco!
Fine. I'll start eating more celery. (Is celery with ranch or peanut butter okay?) I also just bought a pickleball racket, so I hope to hit the courts this winter since I definitely don't want to do any outdoor exercising. Stupid winter!
Photos are a screenshot of Brewster's Millions and from this Forbes article.
I hate not writing. I’ve written Sean’s Ramblings for over 15 years now, and I get in the pattern of writing a new post every few days. It bothers me that it’s been two weeks since my last post. So today, I’m going to share the primary reason why I’ve had this break. My kids!
Luigi (2) had surgery last Monday to get his tonsils and adenoids removed. Because he is fairly young for this procedure, he stayed overnight at the hospital for observation. He did great and was a little restless in the hospital after the he fully woke up from the anesthesia. It probably didn't help that he wanted to move around but couldn't go too far since he had an attached IV.
He was fine the first few days at home, but woke up a little cranky on Friday thanks to a fever despite taking Tylenol and ibuprofen regularly after he got home from the hospital. I took him to the doctor, and it turned out that he had strep. I have no idea how or where he got it but he did. He's back at preschool this week but still has restrictions on what he can and can’t eat and do.
On Saturday, my wife wasn’t feeling well, so she went to an urgent care and discovered that she had strep too.
Just for fun, Pedro Tulo (5) woke up yesterday with a sore throat, so I took him to the doctor. Strep for him!
Finally, The Moose (8) and I got checked out last night, and we’re fine. NO STREP FOR YOU (well us)!
In non-health news, Pedro Tulo got assessed at school. Here’s part of the report:
After modeling and instruction by the examiner, Pedro Tulo generated the following story about a boy who brings his pet bunny to school
He went to the school. Then they was talking about bunnies. Then (distracted by another student in the hallway) Who’s that? (Just another kid. Go ahead.) Do you know him? (No, go ahead. You said they were talking about bunnies.)
This is a perfect summary of Pedro Tulo in that it is a struggle to keep him focused. He’s kind of like the dog in Up.
Otherwise, The Moose has to go back to the dentist since it seems like he needs a filling.
So this is my life. Just taking kids to and from doctors appointments and washing my hands constantly. My hands are so dry right now. I’ll end with this. On Sunday, as the kids watched the Super Bowl, I was doing laundry and getting things set for Monday. I slipped going up the first step from the basement (not like my fall two years ago), and broke my fall with a bag of pretzels. The unopened bag of pretzels become an open bag of pretzels. This was only part of the result.
I think I’m going to find small pieces of salt in my basement for days or weeks!
The title of this post probably isn’t as catchy as Joe Versus The Volcano, but I like it.
I recently went to the doctor for my annual examination. While I had high cholesterol in the past, my numbers have been fantastic lately, well within the normal range. All of my other blood results came back fine too except for this item:
Vitamin D, 25-Hydroxy - 24.8 ng/mL (30.0-100.0)
So I now have low Vitamin D numbers. Here are the actual notes from my doctor:
Excellent labs lipids
No dm or anemia
Chol 163 great
rtc one yr and pm
He is in good health
sl low vt d 25 so take otc vit d once a day and get some sun exposure to help bones heal well and remain strong
Not a major issue however
I’m not a doctor, but I’ll decode this message to the best of my abilities.
Excellent labs lipids
Damn right I have excellent lab lipids. Take that lipids.
No dm or anemia
I guess no direct messages for me on Twitter or Facebook for the next year, so just email me instead.
Chol 163 great
rtc one yr and pm
For the next item, I believe this means that I need to go to Reston Town Center once in the evening during this year.
The rest seems rather self-explanatory though I’m not sure why I need to attend the Offshore Technology Conference.
Back to the low Vitamin D numbers, I decided to look at my lab results from the last few years and found that they were not part of the documents. Did they not test this in the past? Basically, have I always had low Vitamin D numbers? If this is something new, I have a theory as to why my numbers are low. The weather.
The Washington DC weather is likely to be the wettest in history. It seems like rained every day over a several month period in the summer and fall, and even if wasn’t raining, it was still cloudy.
Since it’s unlikely that I’ll get much sun in what sounds like it will be a cold and snowy winter, I guess I’ll start taking Vitamin D tablets to go with my fish oil pills. Pharmaceutical companies win again!
I slipped on my steps, and this is the result. I'm sure you're thinking, with the snow and cold weather, Sean, you need to be more careful walking outside. Of course, this actually happened when I fell on steps inside my home.
Let's set the scene. It was about 6:20 AM on Thursday morning, and I was on our main floor getting The Moose (age 6) breakfast. Meanwhile, Pedro Tulo wasn't making any effort to start the day, so I went upstairs to get him. As I was carrying the three year old down the hardwood steps wearing my old slippers with little tread, I slipped and slid down about four steps. I fell on my wrist and had the additional weight of Pedro Tulo landing on top of it. Pedro Tulo started crying but we quickly determined that he was just shaken up by the fall and was completely fine. Meanwhile, I figured that my pain would wear off in a few minutes and I would be fine. The pain did not wear off, so I went to the ER.
I have no good stories from the ER, only that they did X-rays and found that there was no break. They gave me a splint, the name and number for an orthopedic doctor, and sent me on my way.
Despite taking ibuprofen, I was still in pain throughout Thursday. On Thursday night/Friday morning, I don't think I slept for more than a 30-minute stretch because I just couldn't get comfortable. My right hand was basically useless. Therefore, for my Friday morning doctor's appointment, I decided not to drive and took a Lyft for the first time, and I have to admit that I enjoyed the experience.
The orthopedic doctor did several exercises with my wrist, mostly causing even more pain, but also gave me some type of shot so he could twist my wrist even more. He then gave me an order to get a CT scan/MRI.
Fast forward to Monday and my wrist felt better. I still couldn't rotate it, but I was (barely) able to tie my shoes. I got the MRI done, and when the doctor's office received the results, they called me to schedule an appointment to come in. My thought was: This can't be good. And it wasn't. In talking with this doctor on Monday and a hand specialist on Tuesday, I learned that I have a complete dislocation of the radial ulnar joint. Basically, it's a broken joint in my wrist. This is going to seriously hurt my chances of becoming a hand model!
The big issue is that I cannot rotate my wrist. Who knew that rotating your wrist is so important? The only way to fix this for adults is surgery, and my right wrist/arm is going to be useless for some time (I'll explain more below). Right now, I can't pick up my 4 month old, Luigi, because I have no strength in my wrist. This has been particularly devastating since we really bonded over the last few weeks as I had been home with him. I can't get him in and out of his crib or his clothing. I'm not sure how to feed and burp him with only one hand either.
Here are other things I can't do:
- Open most food packages, most notably the applesauce packets Pedro Tulo eats every morning.
- Type with my right hand
- Put in my contact lenses
I've shaved twice since the accident and while not awful, the results haven't been great.
The doctor also said that I should get slip on shoes since I won't be able to tie them.
I need to figure out how to do things with only my left hand and quickly.
I'll get surgery over the next few days and will likely wear a cast for 4-6 weeks. That will be followed by physical therapy. The doctor said it would be 3-6 months to get back to using my wrist normally. That's a long time. I mean, the Pittsburgh Pirates could trade most of their veteran players before my wrist heals completely.
Wish me luck...and for clothes and shoes that are easy get on and off!
I had my annual physical earlier this week. This seemed like a bigger deal this year because I'm now 40. I thought that a colonoscopy was in my near future, but it turns out that I don't need one of those until I'm 50. Woo Hoo! The physical turned out to be no different than any other one with one exception: an EKG. I've never had an EKG before, but it's really quite easy. You lie down on the table and the physician's assistant puts stickers all over your body like this.
The difficult part is removing the stickers one the EKG is over, particularly when the stickers are attached to your chest hair. Oh, I also found two stickers by my ankles when I went to sleep 15 hours after the appointment.
Anyway, the EKG results were good. My blood pressure and heart rate were also good. My weight was down slightly, and I'm right at where I want to be. Unfortunately, I'm still in the 5' 7" height range, so my growth spurt still hasn't happened yet. Maybe next year!
Now the big stuff. My cholesterol results:
Good again! My cholesterol was significantly higher about 10 years ago, but I've been fine lately. Basically, I'm healthy as a horse. Well, presumably, a healthy horse. You don't want your health to be compared to a sick horse.
Based on all of these results, I think I was robbed by People Magazine. Forget David Beckham. I should be People's Sexiest Man Alive! I guess Beckham just has a better publicist.
Before Monday, I had never been to a podiatrist. I'm not going to share the reason why I went or what happened because it is not very pleasant particularly if you're squeamish. Well, I can confirm that I did not have a foot amputated and did not start growing extra toes. Therefore, you cannot call me Sixto Lezcano.
Anyway, since I haven't written anything in nearly a week, I felt the need to share some notes about the appointment.
When the doctor recommended getting a procedure done in the office that day, the assistant asked me if I wanted a divider so I wouldn't see what was happening. Since I wasn't having a C-section, I declined though I did ask for a magazine. She returned with two choices, a golf magazine and a runners magazine. I chose the runners magazine since the woman on the cover was more attractive than Phil Mickelson.
Runner's World (I think that was the magazine's name) included a profile of a female teacher in her 20s who is in the Guinness Book of World Records for being the youngest person to run the most marathons. The article didn't mention that she is too busy running to create adequate lesson plans for her students.
After the doctor completed the procedure, he said that I shouldn't go to the gym that evening. No concerns on that one. Then he clarified that I could still go to the gym, but that I shouldn't do any running. I guess he thought I was a runner since I was reading Runner's World.
Several days later, I'm walking around with a bit of a limp. I've been referring to myself as 50 Cent since I thought "In Da Club" included a line that he walks with a limp. I discovered that the actual line is "Been hit wit a few shells but I don't walk wit a limp." You learn something every day!
Meanwhile, perhaps I'll start to refer to myself as Martin Crane.
It’s time to vent. I recently won an iPad. Hooray! I’m so happy that I won this product rather than spending several hundreds of dollars to buy it. I can’t turn the thing on. Apparently, I need to download iTunes on to my home computer and then connect the iPad to my computer. Why is this necessary? Name me another fairly expensive product that you can’t use unless hooked up to another product.
Anyway, I have been unable to download iTunes. I consistently receive a message that "the installation of Quick Time did not complete successfully. iTunes requires Quick Time." I’ve tried downloading Quick Time separately but that has also turned out to be unsuccessful. Therefore, the iPad is doing a wonderful job of serving as a paperweight. I could have gone outside and found a rock that would have been just as useful. Angry Birds will have to deal with Angry Sean!
Today is the second day of summer. Hooray! I have a sinus infection. Boo! Being sick in the summer is no fun.
When I called to set up an appointment with my doctor, I learned that he left the practice a few weeks ago. Shouldn’t your doctor give you notice when he/she leaves?
Although TMI Thursdays are a thing of the past, I figure that this story about my health may qualify as too much information.
A few weeks ago, I had some discomfort on my right side. I thought that I may have had an appendicitis, but I figured that I would have been in significantly more pain if that was the case. A week later the discomfort continued, so I went to the doctor. While the doctor confirmed that it wasn’t an appendicitis, he directed me to get an ultrasound. Since you (hopefully) care about my well-being, I thought I would share the results (with some commentary).
Sonographic examination of the abdomen was performed. (Yeah it was.)
The gallbladder is normal in size and position. (That’s what she said. Seriously, the ultrasound was conducted by a woman.)
There are multiple polypoid lesions along the gallbladder wall with the largest lesion measuring 4 mm in size. (Wait, what? That's not funny!)
Previous report described echogenic foci measuring 1 to 2 mm along the gallbladder wall. (They’re just making up words here.)
There are no gallstones. (Woo hoo!)
Gallbladder wall thickness is normal. (Can I use the "that’s what she said" joke again?)
No pericholecystic abnormality is noted. (Pericholecystic has to have been a spelling bee word.)
The intrahepatic bile ducts and the visualized common bile duct are within normal limits in size. Common bile duct measures 3 mm at portal hepatis. (I don’t like seeing any version of the word hepatic or hepatis in a medical report.)
Liver size, configuration, and echogenicity are normal. No focal liver lesion is identified. (No focal liver lesion but what about bifocals?)
The spleen is unremarkable. (Excuse me! The spleen was just resting during the ultrasound. You should see it roll over or fetch a ball. Now that is a remarkable spleen.)
The pancreas is partially obscured but as imaged appears normal. (I have a shy pancreas.)
There is no ascites. (Apparently, ascites is excess fluid in the space between the tissues lining the abdomen and abdominal organs. You learn something everyday at Sean’s Ramblings!)
The kidneys are within normal limits in size and appear unobstructed. Right kidney measures 10.7 cm, and the left kidney measures 10.5 cm. (Is the fact that I’m right-handed related to the fact that my right kidney is larger than my left kidney?)
Conclusion: Small polypoid lesions along the gallbladder wall measuring up to 4 mm. Consider follow-up.
Long-time readers will likely not remember that I had high cholesterol when I started this blog. I had an ultrasound then that showed that I had a fatty liver and one polyp on my gallbladder. The fact that there are multiple polyps 6 years later was a little bit of a concern, but they are small. Plus, my liver is no longer fatty. I guess that means I should start drinking heavily.
So the deal is that I’m fine, but I need to get another ultrasound in a year. In addition, the discomfort is gone.
As a TMI Thursday last December, I shared a story about a trip to the doctor’s office. The appointment went well though there was some confusion about a Tetanus shot. The short version of the story is that the doctor showed a fax indicating that I received a shot from a facility called Travel Clinic; however, I never heard of the Travel Clinic, the fax did not include a patient name, and I never got the shot. The doctor asked me to clear things up with the Travel Clinic and come back if I did need the shot. Consider this part two of the story.
I returned to the doctor’s office several weeks after my initial visit and received the Tetanus shot. You would think that would be the end of the story, but if it was, this would be a terrible blog post! A few weeks later, an invoice of $20 arrived in my mailbox from the doctor’s office for the shot. When I called asking for an explanation, I learned that if I got the shot when I originally planned, there would not have been a charge. The charge was for coming back to the office on a separate occasion. Essentially, the doctor’s office made a mistake by having a random fax in my file. I called this fact to the office’s attention, but, shockingly, there were no notes of this in my file.
I decided that I wasn’t going to pay the $20. While $20 isn’t going to make or break whether or not I can pay my bills, that’s 3+ California Tortilla burritos or 2.5 days of commuting expenses (or 2 days starting in the next few months). I wouldn’t put $20 on a hand of blackjack in Vegas, so I wasn’t readily going to give it up based on an error made by the folks charging the fee. Over the last few months, I probably received 3 or 4 invoices from the office, with the final one arriving last week stating that I was going to collections. I called the office on Tuesday, and, again shockingly, there was nothing in my file stating that I didn’t need to pay for the shot. Reluctantly, I gave up. I wasn’t going to win this battle. I’m sure I sounded defeated when I said that I was switching doctors, but I don’t think they care. The only consolation is that at least I forced the office to spend $2 on postage.
By the way, 5 points to anyone who knows the reference of this post’s title (actual quote: You lose. Get off my property!)
I visited my doctor last week for my annual physical. Actually, annual may not be the correct term as my previous trip took place in January 2007. (Wait a second. I had an appointment in January 2007 and then another one in September 2008. That is annual; sort of. I love having internal debates with myself!) So I arrived at 8:25 for an 8:30 appointment and waited. Two other patients who arrived after I did got called back. Was my doctor running late? Does he not like me anymore? Why is one medical assistant talking about Jessica Alba dating Justin Timberlake? Fortunately, another medical assistant corrected her a few minutes later, because I didn’t want to tell her that she had the wrong Jessica.
Finally, around 8:45, they called my name and directed me to the scale. I had been looking forward to this since I made the appointment so I could see what my weight is now as compared to January 2007. The result: I am 4 pounds lighter than 20 months ago. However, I disagree. The nurse assistant had me go on the scale immediately after I came back. I got weighed while wearing all of my clothes including my shoes and still had my wallet, keys and cell phone in my pocket. I don’t think this was the case during my previous trip, but since I was already behind schedule (I was going straight to work after the appointment), I didn’t question her. My guess is that I’m at least 7 pounds lighter now (and probably even more after all of the running I did refereeing soccer games this weekend).
During my last appointment, the doctor recommended that I start taking Omega-3 Fatty Acid, or as I generally call them, fish pills. Since there’s nothing else exciting to write about my trip to the doctor, I wanted to share with you my cholesterol results.
Cholesterol Total: 1/2/07 – 165, 9/22/08 – 160 Triglycerides: 92, 57 HDL (I think this is the good cholesterol): 34, 46 VLDL: 18, 11 LDL: 113, 103
While I think these numbers are an improvement, if anyone else knows anything about cholesterol, please feel free to chime in below.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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