It's been relatively quiet around here lately. Hanging out with Jo, late night chat drama with Randy (ex #1), etc. Until yesterday, that is.

I had my regular appointment with the cardiologist yesterday morning. I knew it would take a while since I had to have the full blood work done (with the whole 12 hour fast thing beforehand), but I didn't expect it to take 1.5 hours...most of which was actually spent with the doc himself.

My blood work results weren't too bad...bad cholesterol went back up a bit...I figured it would with the decrease in exercise. Good cholesterol staying about the same, triglycerides went down a bit...not too bad overall. However, when it got to the part where he listens to everything with the stethoscope and then palpates (neener) my liver....

He called the intern over and asked her to feel my stomach, then asked her what she felt. She got this surprised look on her face and said, "That's her liver!"

I have a new diagnosis...hepatomegaly...my liver is enlarged. He told me that he was going to call Dr. Martha and get me set up with a gastroenterologist exam to find out why since there are many reasons this could be happening...none of them good of course.

He told me that he'd been thinking and worrying about my case over the past 6 months, leading him to do some research on whether or not there could be a single disease or disorder that could be responsible for ALL of my medical conditions. He put together a paper on a condition called "fat toxicity", a genetic disorder causing fat cells to fail to store fat properly. His research showed that it can cause insulin resistance (type II diabetes), liver damage (cirrhosis), artery disease and dysfunctional arteries, clots, full body inflammation...it can also lead to "glucose toxicity", causing premature aging (including my hair loss), heart disease, nerve disease (the stuff that's wrong in my brain), and kidney disease. It also significantly increases the chances for developing several types of cancers.

He believes that this is the root cause of everything that's wrong with me. The only treatment is weight loss...significantly reducing the amount of fat that the body has to process. He gave me a paper that another local doctor friend of his put together on what he calls the "hunter gatherer diet"...lots of lean proteins, fruits, veggies with little or no grain products. If you do eat grains, they must be whole...not processed in any way. At least I can go back to eating hard-boiled eggs again.

He also added Welchol to my medications. It's supposed to help remove fats and bad cholesterol from the liver, but the biggest thing is that it's an excellent addition to diabetes medication because it reduces blood glucose as well. So my blood sugar will be even better controlled now...always a good thing.

So my grocery list will change dramatically starting on September 3, my next pay day. Dr. Akin and I made some good compromises on my treatment...I agreed to try Crestor once a week, he agreed to not push it if I choose to stop taking it again because of the side effects. I agreed to change my diet yet again, he agreed to stop hounding me about smoking. He gave me permission to go back to exercising also, so I agreed to join the YMCA and start walking again...not really a compromise because I've been wanting to anyway.

I'm glad I have at least one doctor who knows what he's doing, cares enough to look at the whole package and not just the part he specializes in, and is willing to do the research I need in order for us to make me the healthiest sick person I can be.

It was a good day really.

Ciao.

Mood: pretty upbeat actually

To do: watch the new Ghost Hunters episode that I recorded