Thursday, February 5, 2009

Musings

I'm still sick. Argh. I'm hoping that I'll wake up in the morning feeling a lot better. I had my follow-up appointment with the nurse practicioner today and she did a rapid strep (and regular culture, too) which came out negative.

The appointment went well. She seemed pleased with the amount of weight I've lost and her only suggestion after looking at my food journal was to eat more 0 point foods. I'm sure I could, but I'm really not very hungry during the day, the way I've been eating. I think the key for me is that I drink the breakfast shake very slowly over a few hours (I keep it in the fridge). Just two or three sips makes me feel full, and when I tried to chug it all right upon waking, I'd feel sick. So I spend all morning taking little sips when I pass by the fridge and don't feel hungry at all until lunchtime. Then it seems almost like a rush trying to fit in enough points to get close to 28.

Anyway. My blood tests all came back pretty normal. The one that was a little off I wasn't really expecting her to catch, and it's not a big deal anyway. Just to be really thorough, here are the pertinent results, with the norm in parentheses:

Insulin - 17 (6-27)
Glucose - 82 (70-105)
Cholesterol - 163 (<200)
Triglyceride - 115 (<150)
HDL - 52 (23-92)
LDL - 88 (<100)

According to those results my coronary risk is below average. Nice, huh? So, I'm also not diabetic or really even pre-diabetic, but she agreed to put me on a low dose of Metformin. My father's diabetic as is his mother, and because I have a few signs of PCOS and the low milk supply, I was more than willing to give it a go. I know GI upset is commonly reported as a side effect, so if it's bothersome I'll just go off of it, it's not like I really need it.

I go back in 3 months, which will be a nice additional motivator to keep up with the weight loss. I figured it out today and there are 20 more weeks until the beginning of July, which means if I lose 3 pounds a week, I'll make it to 200 lbs. I think with sensible eating and exercise, that should be well within reach.

3 comments:

Kathy. D said...

That's great about your weight, now to get to feeling better. There IS something going around here in Sacramento, too, with those symptoms. Get well soon.

anna said...

Hi. I've been reading your [very interesting] blog! I have an 11 month old and struggled with milk supply for about the first 4 months of her life. Did they check your thyroid? That was part of my problem. Thankfully by fixing that and taking many herbs (at least for a few months) I am still successfully breastfeeding! Good luck!

Rachel said...

Yes, I had my thyroid levels checked multiple times with each kid. I also had my prolactin levels checked, and they're high enough.. which is the reason Reglan, fenugreek, etc don't work for me.

Whoever knew that breastfeeding could be so hard? I made it to 6 months with my third, and consider that a big success for me.