Health and Life Updates
I know I have been a bit remiss in my blog posting. For this, I apologize. The past few weeks have been a tad hectic. Go figure that when I start a challenge to get healthy, health issues pop up!
A few weeks ago, I went to the emergency room with elevated blood pressure (161/120), dizziness, and shortness of breath. I am now under a physician’s care for the high blood pressure and am taking blood pressure medication. Don’t worry! I informed the doctor of my weight loss efforts, and he assured me that I’m doing everything correctly and that my diet and exercise aren’t going to exacerbate my blood pressure problems. In fact, they will help with the situation; something that I had planned on in the first place!
While visiting with my doctor, I inquired about when it would be prudent of me to begin colon screenings, given my family history of colon cancer. My mother and her grandmother both died of colon cancer. He said I can start now, if I wanted; yesterday I had my first colonoscopy. The screening was clean and I will be scheduling another one in five years just to be on the safe side. Usually it’s every ten years, but with my history, the gastroenterologist recommended every five years.
So that is a huge weight off my shoulders. My mother’s illness taught me that you can never be too careful or start too early on cancer detection. I was always worried about breast cancer or cervical cancer with my mom. It really never occurred to me to urge her to get a colon screening. Of course, after she died, it seemed like everywhere I looked, I saw advertisements for colon screenings. Meh.
Another good thing came about from my procedure yesterday. I have been milling the thought of returning to my earlier career goals for a while now. My nurse in recovery yesterday helped seal the deal, as it were. Our conversation turned to my education and how I had abandoned my plans to go to medical school when my mom died. The nurse urged me to strongly consider going to medical school. So guess what…
I am!
I have no idea where to begin though! It’s been five years since I graduated from college. I guess the first place would be to start reviewing and planning for the MCAT. This is a scary, but exciting, prospect! Wish me luck!
