Trending downward

As the year end approaches, I want to put out a positive note about my recent health. In September I had to choose a new primary care physician as my prior one (who was almost as old as I was) decided to retire. At the office I go to there is one MD, several DO's, and a couple of CRNP's. I asked to be assigned to any one who was taking new patients and was assigned to Kathy Kaufman, CRNP, PhD. She's several years younger than I. On our my first visit with her it was obvious that she was going to be quite proactive. She increased the dosage of one of my meds and added another one. With her guidance, I also decided to scrap the fish oil capsules I was taking since they didn't have enough EPA/DHA to do me much good unless I was taking an entire handful of them each day (typical capsules advertise 1000 mg of Omega-3, but only 300 of that 1000 is the stuff you really need) - after some research I have now replaced that with liquid fish oil that I take 3 tsp of each day (1600 mg of Omega-3 includes 1300 mg of the EPA/DHA) so 3 tsp is 3900 mg which is the equivalent of 13 capsules! I was also referred to a 5-session class on managing diabetes.

The results over the past 3 months have been amazing! The items I was "out of line" on have all trended downward:

• Triglycerides - from 952 to 303! - this is the one measure that I've had the hardest time in controlling. It's still higher than is recommended, but I've never been below 600 in all the times I've had readings taken.
• A1c - from 8.3 to 6.2 (taking me from officially diabetic back to the pre-diabetic range)
• Weight - down 7 pounds in 3 months (compared to my loss of 16 pounds in the prior 4 years) - still have a ways to go, but my BMI is now down from the mildly "obese" range to just "over weight" for the first time in several decades.

The pharmacist who works in that office was not going to be in the day of my last appointment, so she called me the day before - just elated with what I've accomplished in such a short period of time.

Obviously, this is a partnership - I've had to do my part in being more consistent in my diet, etc. and my weight/waist has been trending down for the last several years. But with her guidance I've taken things to a new level and have something more to show than just the 4 pounds a year that I was taking off before. My waist is now down a total of 5" since I started on this journey and some mornings I'm using the last hole in my belt.

May things continue in this downward direction!