My appointment went well yesterday, and I realize that I’m going to miss Dr. A just like I’ll miss Dr. N. Wasn’t sure what to think when I first started with her but now I’m very comfortable with her and she knows me well.

I am briefly but cautiously going to begin the lowest dose of Simvastatin.

I told her I took it for about 6 months in 2014 before I started seeing her and was on 20mg at the time. Due to my phobia, she wants to start me at 10 milligrams. I’m nervous about it but also proud of myself for finally being brave enough to take that step before I get the misfortune of having a stroke or a heart attack. It took over half a decade after being so deeply traumatized to get up the guts to do this. Tomorrow he’ll pick up both of my meds and his blood pressure medication all at once from Walmart, so we’ll be set for a while. The doctor said not to drink during the first few days on the medication. I forgot to ask if it can be taken at the same time my thyroid meds are taken so Tom will ask the pharmacist. And make sure the levothyroxine is the right brand, of course.

Backing up to the beginning of the appointment, I met with a dumb but definitely the funniest nurse ever. He was dumb in that he was trying to tell me COVID was highly exaggerated and all that and that the death count is way lower than it really is. We believe he’s wrong and that it’s actually the other way around. The world death count is currently listed as over 1 million, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was actually over 2 million. You can’t always know if someone had COVID and died of something else right as they got it.

The funny part was when he said that none of his inmates has ever had COVID and I was like “Inmates?” Then he apologized saying that he recently worked in a jail and was going to be going back to a jail in Placer County (as a nurse) and that he meant “coworkers,” haha.

My weight is the same, but my blood pressure was a little high, as expected. Funny how now that I’m no longer afraid of the electric BP cuff they go and use the old-fashioned one on me.

First the doctor went over my lab results with me and I asked about what I read about eggs not raising cholesterol levels. She said as long as I don’t have more than one a day, I’m okay. I was glad to hear this because my dad was ordered to have just one egg a week. But then again, he already had serious heart issues. So now I can get half a dozen eggs a week in which one day I could make a 3-egg omelet and then my wonderfully scrambled eggs another day. twirls with delight

She listened to my heart and it sounded good. Felt my thyroid, listened to my lungs, that sort of thing.

I told her I thought I had some more unwanted friends, and she thinks the one on my stomach is just a bug bite, but she did, not surprisingly, spray my arm with liquid nitrogen. This time it stung a bit. Got to keep a Band-Aid on it for the rest of today and then tomorrow I can take it off. I’m sure it will get a little itchy as it heals but at least the stinging stopped pretty fast.

Just like last time, she told me the fatigue could be from multiple things including my thyroid. When we discussed my slightly elevated red cell blood count, I was surprised to learn that one of the things that can cause that is sleep apnea. So Tom was looking at our health metrics and found we both had a couple of shifts and variations in oxygen levels where something like that could have happened but as far as we’re still both concerned, we do not have sleep apnea. We’re still part of that study so if Fitbit sees anything funny with our hearts, sleep or anything, they’ll let us know and maybe even send us to a doctor that they’ll pay for.

I told her about the forgetfulness I’ve been experiencing and she says that too, can be caused by multiple things, though I seemed sharp-minded and able to recall things we’ve discussed in the past and that she can tell right away when someone’s having serious memory issues by the way they keep repeating themselves and asking the same things during visits.

She knows that if all goes well, that was likely our second to last visit. Tom and I joked about her dreading seeing me because I’ve been fighting statins for so long, but she didn’t give me that impression. If anything it was just the opposite and she told me twice it was good to see me. She did say that a lot of people wait until they have a stroke and since he’s now semi-retired and we’re going to be moving at all that, it would be nice for me to be able to enjoy it without having anything like that happen. I agree! No one wants to have a stroke. I remember how my paternal grandmother ended up paralyzed on the right side and couldn’t walk without dragging her right leg, could barely write or even hold a fork when eating.

I told her I was concerned that if I was one of the ones whose muscles were attacked it would take months to recover and delay our move, but she said not necessarily. There are plenty of people who when they get pain, stop the medication and they’re okay the next day. Well, hopefully I won’t have any problems to begin with! If not, then I won’t have to worry about my numbers or whether or not I’m going to die a little too young even though I wouldn’t want to live forever either.

After she left, the nurse came back and gave me a flu shot which also stung. Usually, I don’t feel anything. He said everyone else was complaining about that, though. I guess there was just something about this particular one. He said I’ll reach full immunity in two weeks and it will last for four months. Today it feels sore but only if I touch it. The area is warmer, too.

She always gives me a slip to give to them at the front desk when scheduling the next appointment. Tom laughed when I told him that after she wrote “thyroid” next to “follow-up,” she circled the 30 instead of the 15 for how many minutes she wanted to spend with me. They’d circle 5 for him if they could! LOL

So I have to go to the lab in January to have my cholesterol levels checked, to the dentist in February, to my ENT in March, back to Doc A in April, and then I’m done!

Relieved to have another appointment out of the way, we treated ourselves at Rite Aid to various goodies. We deserve to spoil ourselves every now and then. I ate so much! It’s a miracle I didn’t get sick. I had a beef stroganoff frozen dinner when I got home so I could have some real food in my stomach on top of the sugar and booze. I had over half a pint of coffee ice cream, 2 oz of cheese puffs, and 2 servings of wine. Just not all at once, of course. Again, I’m lucky I didn’t get sick and I’m surprised my weight isn’t up either. But hey, I’m active. As long as I move my ass, I don’t gain any more than I lose.

The house behind Lawrence is getting a new roof. Lawrence’s house blocks the sound but the truck bringing in the supplies is ferociously loud. It would have woken me up had I been asleep.

Finally got to see Virginia yesterday. She was returning with a woman with a fried ponytail that I thought was Mrs. Claus at first. She introduced us and said that since she doesn’t drive anymore, she stays with her for a few hours a day. I’m not sure if she’s a friend or relative or what. I wasn’t going to ask, of course, but fortunately, she didn’t mention moving or anything. She said she wondered if we packed up and took off somewhere. I told her the only reason I’d been laying low was due to the virus and that was why I hadn’t been to see her.

Another project - or at least the insanely loud vehicle used for it - that I’ll have to listen to is them redoing the island. So I not only have to deal with projects themselves but every time they do a half-assed job, I have to deal with them fixing whatever they fucked up as well. We’ve always noticed that the cobblestones which are more like bricks in the island have never been cemented down after they were put down. They would rattle under the bike wheels and even when we would walk or run across them. When a car would roll over them it would almost sound like large dominoes clinking together. They only roped off one side so maybe that’s the only side they’re going to replace. Tom suspects someone got a popped tire because of it. I still don’t understand why they didn’t just pour one big smooth piece of concrete and fill the space with that.

Love how Duolingo now has speech testing in their lessons. It understood my Spanish, Italian and German but had trouble with my Portuguese since I’m not as experienced with that. I haven’t tried the Dutch.

We discussed the pros and cons of flying vs. driving, but without knowing what’s going to be going on come April or May, it’s all a toss of a coin at this point.

Facebook really loves to invade our privacy and flag our activity to our friends, doesn’t it? Now I’m getting notifications when a friend comments on a friend’s post. Why the fuck would they think we’d give a shit about that? I hate how I can’t react or comment on anything public because I know it’s going to be pointed out to my friends. Again, if I want to make something someone’s business, I’ll tell them myself! And of course, those who are really curious, can just run my name and add the word “comments” or whatever on Facebook. Again, I don’t know why so many companies feel the need to point out everything a person does. If you’re not looking into someone because you’re dating them, are thinking of renting a place to them or hiring them for some job, then that usually leaves just one thing and it’s not very good either.

All my pony beads glow in the dark, but not all of them change colors in UV light, so I’ve learned, and are all mixed together in one big bag. Kinda sucks that the lazy bastards couldn’t put them in two separate bags.

If Aly tells me to send the jewelry I’m going to surprise her with soon enough to her parents I’m going to be suspicious. Like really suspicious.