Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Morning With The Doctor

Had my first appointment with my new doctor at Kaiser this morning. I had been told that he would do my PAP if time allowed, but I guess time didn't allow because they scheduled me to come back on March 26th and have it. He also ordered a complete blood panel for me which I'll go do this Thursday because I had not fasted for today.
Anyway, he asked me a bunch of questions about my screenings, my medications, my health problems, etc. I told him about my last doctor telling me I was his worst case of "white coat syndrome". The new doctor wants me to take my home blood pressure monitor with me to the lab when I go for the blood work. He said they have a place there where you can walk in anytime and just have your B/P checked. He told me to have them take my B/P on their monitor and then take it about a minute later on mine to see if they are pretty close. He wants to make sure my problem really is "white coat syndrome" and not just my home B/P monitor reading lower than it should.
I told him about the fact that I cannot tolerate medications for my high cholesterol. My cholesterol problem is genetic, not dietary. He said that they have found that high cholesterol is pretty far down on the list for things that are risk factors for heart attack and stroke. He told me that the main risks are:
1. High blood pressure
2. Diabetes
3. Obesity
4. Smoking
5. Drinking
Seems now they worry more about the plaque that is growing in our arteries than they do the cholesterol that sticks to the plaque.
So for right now, all is well. I'll just have to find out what my blood tests results show.

2 comments:

  1. All's well that ends well. I can't take that medicine either.

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  2. This so sounds like what I've been going through for the last year and a half. I had a new cardiologist [I've suffered from SVT for years!!], and he put me on a new medication that I soon found out I was allergic to, and from there it blossomed into a dr/patient/distrust of him and I found yet another new one. He had me go through surgery in 2007, and I tellya, I should have done THAT years ago.

    Good luck with the blood work results. I'm rooting for you. [and I too have a home monitor/and went through the same with the case of 'white coat syndrome']

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Kay