A Doctor's Visit

On Thursday of last week I went to the doctor over at the Student Health Center because for the past two months I've had some symptoms cropping up on a regular basis that I thought might be related to some early signs of diabetes. Since diabetes is a common thing in my family I decided that it was a good idea to be safe and go talk to the doctor about it.

So, I went to see Dr. Bergesen, and told him all about the things that were happening. I was getting extremely tired after large meals to the point I would have to lie down for a short nap, I was getting bad headaches if I didn't eat regularly, I've put on about 15 pounds, but my activity level and eating habits are exactly the same, etc. After some discussion the doctor told me that several of the things I was talking about can be early signs and that we should do a couple of blood tests to test things like my blood sugar level, cholesterol, liver, kidneys, thyroid, and so on.

The next morning I went on over to get the blood work done, and this morning returned to discuss the test results with the doctor once more. Turns out that my liver, kidneys, and thyroid are all just fine, but my glucose and cholesterol levels are right at the top of the accepted "normal" range. So, Dr. Bergesen has told me to work out a low-fat diet, along with some healthier food choices (no more pasta all the time for me I guess), and to start doing some light exercise each day.

I've made an appointment to go see the Dietitian over at the Health Center at the beginning of May because if left up to me to try and figure out which things would be better to eat I'm never going to pick the right stuff. I need to sit down with someone who can outline what types of things are "good" and what is "bad" and what I can have on occasion in smaller quantities. From what the doctor said I won't have to do anything drastic, but changing a few food choices, and the exercise will greatly help. I don't have diabetes, but the signs are there that if I don't do some preventative maintenance I would likely get hit later in life.

As for the exercising, I guess I'm lucky that Holly and I have our treadmill here in the office because I can do my 30 minutes of walking each day with little hassle. Even if it gets rainy or cold outside I'm still good to go. I already did my time for today and it wasn't too bad, so I can't really complain much. Now I just need to make myself a good playlist on the iPod that lasts about 35 minutes or so and I'll be set.