Cholesterol

I was wondering if anyone who reads my blog has a problem with high cholesterol and cannot take statins.
I cannot take statins. They give me muscle pain and fatigue.
My cholesterol problem is genetic from my mother's side of our family. The only way I can lower it is with diet and exercise, but because my liver produces more cholesterol than it should, mine is always going to be high.
I tried 3 different statins, also tried Zetia. Have tried flush Niacin and Red Yeast Rice. I already take 3000 MG of fish oil every day. I also take Flax Seed Oil, Garlic Tablets, Vitamin E and COQ10.
I take low dose aspirin, but my cholesterol is still high.
I had a friend over on "Not Over The Hill" tell me that her husband also has genetic high cholesterol. He was put on statins but they were destroying his liver, so the doctor took him off of them. She said he started taking Centrum Cardio and his cholesterol level went from 256 down to 180. Centrum Cardio is a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement that also contains 400 MG of Phytosterols which have been proven to lower Cholesterol.
I already take a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, but I found a product called Bayer Heart Health Advantage. It is nothing but 400 MG of Phytosterols per tablet. You take 2 of them a day. I'm hoping that they will help me to lower my cholesterol.
If anyone has taken either of these products, I would love to hear from you.

Friday

Did not get a walk in today. For some reason, when my husband (Ben) does not work, I can't find the time to get out there to exercise. He is always wanting to jump in the car and go somewhere.
Nice weather here in SoCal again today. Blue sky and sunny. They are saying that we may get up to around 90 degrees by middle of next week.

Got Started Early

I got started early today.
As soon as Ben left for work, I headed over to WalMart. I wanted to pick up a bottle of Bayer Heart Health Advantage. I was told by several on-line friends that they or someone they know was using Centrum Cardio Multi-Vitamins to help lower cholesterol. I started checking it out on-line and came across the Bayer Heart Health Advantage. The Centrum Cardio has phytosterols plus vitamins and minerals. I'm already taking a multi-vitamin and mineral supplement, so I saw that Bayer Heart Health Advantage has nothing but the phytosterols so I decided to get it instead and give it a try to see if it will help me to lower my high cholesterol.
Picked up a few other things at WalMart too....a couple of DVDs....."Mamma Mia" and "Bruce Almighty", a new bath mat and some mouthwash.
When I got home, I drove over to our Central Park and did a 1.4 mile walk. The weather is beautiful outside today. Started out at 37 degrees this morning, but now it's in the 60's and the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Just beautiful.
Well, need to go check out my friends on NOTH and Facebook.
TTFN

My Day

It was cold for us this morning when we awoke....39 degrees. After Ben left for work, I hand my breakfast (egg and muffin) and then mopped my floors.
My older brother called. He is getting ready to have cataract surgery so he keeps calling me to tell me what's going on with him.
Then I went for a 1.5 mile walk. By that time the weather had warmed up into the 60's and it was really nice outside.
Came home and made my lunch and watched my soap (Y&R) and then started to work on my home-made Christmas cards. Took the photo of Ben and I for the cards over the weekend.
How was your day?

Blood Work Results

Started getting the emails with my blood work results from Kaiser last night and the final result email came early this morning.
I HAVE BEEN A VERY BAD GIRL!
My cholesterol and triglycerides are the highest they have ever been. I admit that I have NOT been watching what I eat. Since I cannot tolerate the cholesterol medications, diet and exercise are the only way I can lower my numbers. When I was very first diagnosed with high cholesterol, it was 305 total. With diet and exercise, I was able to lower it to 265, which is the lowest it will go without medication. Mine is genetic, so it is even harder to get the numbers down.
In January 2005, I weighed 205 lbs. By October 2005, I had lost 45 lbs, but then gained back 5 lbs right away and it leveled off and stayed at 160 lbs for about 3 years.
I gained back another 10 lbs because I stopped watching my diet and I'm sure that is why my cholesterol levels also started going back up. Right now my total cholesterol is 326.
I go to see my new doctor this Monday and I know he will be all over me about my numbers. I know what has caused it and I am determined to start watching my diet once again and trying to get out and do more exercise.
Will just have to wait and see what happens.

Blood Work Day

Had to go over to the Kaiser Lab this morning and have blood work down before my appointment with my doctor next Monday. The lab is only about 4 miles from my home, so that is nice, and the technician there is so friendly. Today I mentioned to her that I would be seeing my new doctor for the first time next week. She told me that he is really nice and really listens to his patients. My new doctor is in the same building as the lab, so he is only about 4 miles away too. When I first joined Kaiser last year, there were no doctors taking new patients at the facility near me, so I had to sign up with a doctor over in the big Kaiser facility across the valley. That doctor was nice, but he kept suggesting that I try to get a doctor at the facility nearer my home so when I saw this young doctor was taking new patients, I called and had them make him my PCP. His nurse called about a month ago and said I needed to come in for an office visit and she scheduled the blood work. I don't take cholesterol meds as they give me muscle cramps and cause fatigue, but they always run a complete lipid panel on me.

More Memories....

Do you remember Lincoln Logs?

One of my brothers received a set of them one Christmas back in the 1950's when we were all little. Of course we shared our toys so all three of us would play with them. We would spend hours on end building log cabins. We built them so much we got to where we didn't even need the instructions on how to do it.



The logs we had came in a round can like the one below. We had to put them in there just right or the lid would not fit on top. I remember many happy times building the log cabins with my brothers.

Do You Remember.....

Wax mustaches and wax lips?
I remember they would show up in the stores every year around Halloween and my brothers and I would run out and buy a bunch of them. We'd wear them for awhile and then we would always end up chewing on them. Don't know if you were supposed to chew on wax, but that's what we did.
I see that you can still buy them online. Don't know if they are still in stores.

Foreign Coins

I am so tired of getting foreign coins in my change when I go to the store!
Most of the time, if it's a penny or a nickle, I let it go, but not today.
We went to Sam's Club to pick up a few things. I always pay cash and my change was 84 cents. The guy at the register hands me 3 quarters, 4 pennies and a foreign coin with a big "5" on it. It looked like a "toy coin" or a "token" for a game.
For some reason, it just struck a nerve today and I told him I wanted a "real" nickle instead of the "phony" one he just handed me. Well he had already closed the register drawer and they always tell you they cannot open it again until the make a sale. I think he thought I'd say "OK, we'll just let it go", but I didn't. I told him I'd wait.
So many times I've received foreign coins in my change without realizing it until I get home and then when I try to pass it off to another store, they will not accept it.
I stood there and waited for the next customer but she paid with a credit card, so once again, the guy at the register told me he could not open the register drawer. Again I said "I'll wait". Well, there were no other customers in line, so he had to go get a supervisor to come over and open the drawer. They were both mumbling about it when they handed me an American nickle, like I was being a bitch or something.
THIS IS AMERICA! Why should I accept a foreign coin that I would have trouble passing on? The stores should look at the coins all of these foreigners hand to them when making a purchase and the stores should refuse those foreign coins.

Autumn Morning Hike

This morning I hiked the 1.9 mile Canyon View Loop Trail in Towsley Canyon neat Santa Clarita, CA. My total hike from the parking lot, to the trailhead, over the trail and back was 2.6 miles. I don't know what the elevation increase was on this trail, but I know it got pretty high up. I could also tell that I had not been out on a "strenuous" hike for awhile because my heart was pounding, I was gasping for breath and I had to stop and rest several times on the climb up, but once I hit the summit and started back down, I had no problem.

If you would like to see all of the photos I took on this hike, please visit this album on my photosite at:

http://public.fotki.com/KaysWay/my-hikes--2009/towsley-canyon-view/

A TV Show To Remember

Do you remember the TV show "Gunsmoke?" It was one of my family's favorite shows. It was on CBS (our channel 2) on Saturday nights and 9:00 PM. We would all head for the kitchen around 8:30 PM and start fixing snacks, then right at 9:00 PM, we'd all sit down in front of the old black and white TV and watch the show. Below are the "original" characters....Chester, Miss Kitty, Matt and Doc.

Some of the episodes were filmed right here in the city where I live at a place called "Melody Ranch" which was once owned by Gene Autry. I have been there once and saw some of the sets for "Gunsmoke". Here is a link for Melody Ranch:

http://www.melodyranchstudio.com/

And here is a photo I found online of the real Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City, KS.

Shoddy Merchandise

Why is it every time I buy some kind of electronic device, it always ends up being "shoddy" and I have to return it to the store to exchange it?
A month ago, we purchased a new cordless telephone for the computer room. It had an answering system and two handsets, one remote and one base. It was working fine until today when my brother called and left a voicemail but the volume keep cutting out on it. I kept messing around with it trying to get the volume to stay on but it just wouldn't.
We took the phone back to Best Buy where we purchased it 28 days ago. Luckily it crapped out within the 30 day return time. I told them what it was doing so they said I could either replace it with the same model or pick out a different model. Well I went for the different model because once burned.....
Took me over an hour to get the new one all set up with our family members phone numbers, set up the answering system, etc.

Do You Remember.....

Wringer Washing Machines?

My mom had one. She did not have to wheel it into our kitchen like the photo below because we actually had a "service porch" inside the house, between the kitchen and the bathroom and the "service porch" had a big sink in it. Funny we did not call it the "laundry room".

Anyway, I remember my mom washing the clothes in the tub and then having to wring the water out of them manually with the wringer that was connected to the top of the washer. Guess they didn't know how to make the tub spin the water out of the clothes back then. I remember the towels and clothes would come out all flat and hard, like a piece of wood.

Mom would put the "pieces of wood" into a laundry basket and carry them outside to the clothesline in the back yard and hang everything on the line to dry in the sun all day.

This is what our clothesline looked like.

Then, after the laundry was dry, it had to be ironed. But you could not iron the wrinkles out of everything unless you used a "sprinkle bottle". This is because they did not have steam irons back then. It was any bottle you had, like a soda pop bottle and you bought funny little corks with holes in the top that you would put in the mouth of the bottle and the water would sprinkle out from the holes.

I Do NOT Believe This!

So I head over to the Sears Optical Department in our mall again this morning since my new eyeglasses had not come in yesterday when I got there.
This morning the eyeglasses were there but......
The technician who measured the lenses for the trifocal lines messed up. She had the measurements about 1/2" off and now they have to remake the lenses and I won't have my glasses for another week.
The technician that was there today said she cannot believe that the other girl could make that big of a mistake on the measurements.

Not Again!

I just HATE it when things do not work out the way they are supposed too. I went to Sears Optical last week and had my eyes examined and then ordered a pair of eyeglasses. I was told that I could pick up my new eyeglasses today after 1:00 PM. I left home around 1:05 PM to head over to the Valencia Mall where Sears Optical is located. It's about 8 to 10 miles over there. Got there around 1:15 PM and was told that the UPS driver never made his delivery for the day. They said that he is "always" there between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM every day, but today, they had not seen him. The called UPS and were told that their package was on the delivery truck and would be there "sometime" today. Girl at optical department said there was probably a substitute driver and he didn't know the route. So now I have to go back over there tomorrow afternoon to see if my eyeglasses came in. Can't go in the morning. They don't open until 11:00 AM and we have a lunch we have to go to at 11:15 AM so will have to wait until we get back home.

Remember These?

Do you remember Formica topped kitchen tables and chrome and vinyl chairs? I think we all grew up with them. The one in my mom's kitchen when I was growing up was gray and it was oval shaped. We did not have a formal dining room, just a "dinette", but the Formica table sat in the corner of our very small kitchen. I don't know how five of us (my parents, me and my two brothers) all fit around that little table in that little area, but we did.

We were not allowed to have the television or radio on while we were eating at the table with the family. This time was set aside for discussing school, my dad's work, etc. and of course for eating our meals.

My mom had that table up until the time my dad died and all of us kids had moved away. She replaced it with a small wood table.

Do You Remember.....

SLINKY?


They had absolutely no purpose! But I thought they were one of the coolest things ever. I used to love to put it on the top of our cement steps that were outside our backdoor and just watch it "somersault" itself down to the bottom, or just hold it in my hands and "shimmy" it back and forth. It didn't take much to entertain us back then. We didn't need all these electronic things to occupy our time.

Do You Remember?

Do you remember S&H Green Stamps?

You would receive them at grocery stores, department stores, gas stations, etc. You would receive so many according to how much money you spent. You would lick them and stick them in little books and then redeem them for merchandise.

You would get the S&H Green Stamps "IdeaBook" catalog filled with all kinds of things. Dishes, lamps, sheets, towels, and many, many other things.

I remember my mom would get all kinds of neat "stuff" with the stamps we collected. She got pots and pans, wall hangings, flatware and so many other useful items.

What Happened To Fall?

Well on Monday and Tuesday, we had cool weather, clouds and rain. I thought fall was FINALLY here!
Yesterday and today it is clear, windy and hot. We hit 95 degrees so far today.
Went and picked up my "spare" pair of new eyeglasses this morning. Now I'm waiting on the "main" pair. The "main" pair will have Transitions Lenses. The "spare" pair does not. They charge so much for Transitions. I wear trifocals. The "main" pair cost me $307 with Transitions. The "spare" pair cost me $164 without Transitions.
And don't even get me started on the price of the frames! I was lucky to find two inexpensive pairs. One was $59 and the other was $69. Most of them are "designer" frames and cost from $99 to $200. That is outrageous!

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere