Personal Health Update

I know I haven't been great at blogging lately. Partly I think it's because the things that I spend most of my thoughts on aren't all that upbeat and chipper and I don't really think that things that frustrate me are things that I want to blog about. The mysterious side pain that prompted my initial doctor's visit in March where I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes continues to be vague and persistent, but has now been joined by a burning/tingling/itching sensation in the vicinity of my right scapula (shoulder blade). At my 2 month diabetes follow-up last week, I mentioned it to my PCP, but he suggested that that appointment was to follow-up on diabetes and that I ought to come back another time to talk about this new pain.

I did that yesterday, and he felt around back there and said that the pain I was having seemed to be in my rhomboid muscle, and suggested that I ought to have my right scapula x-rayed just to rule out any kind of bone cyst or anything. Got my x-rays done yesterday (sometimes its nice to work in a hospital), and everything looked fine, so now I've been referred for physical therapy. Not sure if I'm every going to be healthy enough to get some follow-up on the original side pain...and that's kind of what's been frustrating me lately.

That and dating. :)

In the spirit of ending on a more upbeat note, my diabetes follow-up went really well. After 2 months of watching my carb intake and trying to exercise more often, I lost 20 pounds, got my hemoglobin A1c down from 7.5 to 5.8 (7.0 is a common standard for "controlled" diabetes. 6.0 is the high end of "normal" ranges, for non-diabetics), lowered my cholesterol a bit, and really brought my triglycerides count down. Oh, and my blood pressure, which was pretty close to normal already, came down a bit, too. So for now, not going on any medication. Follow-up in 6 months.