I'm baaack!

It has been a long, long time since my last post. Life seems to always get in the way of things, and I'm not going to lie: Blogger took a back seat to Facebook over the last few years (and will continue to do so!). So, let's catch up:

In 2012, I weighed 247 pounds, and one day I woke up and decided that I was tired of being fat. I started to pay more attention to what I was eating, and I began to increase my activity. As I got into the summer, I started to walk on the treadmill, and the foot pains that I have lived with for the last 20 years got worse. The pain nagged me enough that my wife made me an appointment with a podiatrist. While at the podiatrist, they checked my blood pressure. Not good! So I went to see a regular doc.

The regular doc checked my BP and nearly sent me to the emergency room! My BP at the time was 190/118! I could have had a stroke at any time! So I was immediately put on meds. Oh, how awful I felt for the next couple of days. My body was so used to having such a high pressure that it was trying to adjust to a lowered pressure. I returned a week later, and my pressure was going down. A month later, I returned and also had a fasting blood test done. Not only was my BP high, but so was my cholesterol (280!) and I was a borderline diabetic. Started meds for cholesterol. At this time, I weighed about 238. I then began quarterly check-ups.

At subsequent check-ups, we found that my BP was being difficult, and since that first day, I've encountered 4 different changes in BP medicine. Want to know what else happened? I quit getting headaches! All this time, I figured it was the job and the building I was in that gave me headaches, and it wasn't; it was my BP. So, even now, my BP is being closely monitored because it doesn't want to get to the magical 110/70.

Anyway, my sugar levels weren't going down, either, so the doc decided to put me on Metformin. Oh, man! The abdominal pains I endured for two days! Horrible!! That first month, I dropped a pound every three days. At my most recent full check-up just before Thanksgiving, I have recovered from being a borderline diabetic, my cholesterol is 160, and I weighed in at 216 pounds. I'm still a work in progress, but I'm getting there. Oh, and the benefits? I need new pants, I don't wake up gasping for air due to apnea, and I don't have reflux anymore. Plus, headaches are rare...