Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Doctor's visits and progress

So back on the 8th I saw my Doctor for a "routine" physical. To my alarm my blood pressure was unacceptably high (yeah, that's a shock) and we decided it was time to do something about it. My poor little legs were swollen up like sausages, which meant I was retaining water too, so my Doctor Started me on a combination ACE and water pill. She also said she wanted me to come back in a month for a followup. Scheduling and so on made it easier to go down yesterday.

Despite a rough, strange start to the day, it was a good visit.

The day started rough, and weird. I was taking a shower and realized I left my towels in my room, which would make drying off a bit of a problem. So I stepped out of the shower, went back into my room, grabbed the towels and was rushing back to the bathroom when my foot went out from under me. Concerned I might do some serious damage on the way down, and lacking anything to grab onto to check my fall, I tried to control it. While I got a nasty rug burn on my right knee as I came down hard on it, I managed to turn my accident into a gymnatics move.

All the time at Curves paid off as I landed in a split on the bathroom floor. I didn't even know I could do a split! I was honestly more stunned I could do a split than in pain from the knee. Got up and looked at my poor knee, which looked more like road rash than anything, and got back in the shower. When I got out of the shower as I sat on my bed wrapped in a towel, I spent fifteen minutes doing Reiki on my knee.

Finished getting ready, and left on time for a change to start the drive down to Philly. I wanted to get started early because my doctor's office had moved, and I wanted to make sure I could find parking nearby. So I drove around a bit, found the office, and miracle of all, found a spot on the street right by the new office. Psych!

Went into the Doctor's office, checked in and found the powder room. I was a full hour early. So I figured while I waited I'd do some light reading, and asked the receptionist for copies of my last lab results. She chuckled and said "You call that light reading? Wow, I'd just grab a magazine!" Well the labs were a sight to see, I was floored and so pleased!

My whole life, blood chemistry results for me were always weird. Nothing terrible or dangerous, just results that never quite fit into so call "normative" ranges. These labs were so pleasing because for the first time in my life they were, with three understandable exceptions, perfectly normal and withing normal values for a woman. A woman of 20! This was so cool, I wasn't just normal and healthy, I was better than my age!

Now this was also the first set of labs I'd seen post-op, and the ranges were listed in terms of female norms, not male. There isn't a dramtic difference between the two, but there is one, and this is the first set of my labs I've seen. Since all my records have long since been changed, and everything has long since been listed as ever more female, the labs were worked up that way too. What was so cool however is the various things that over the years were off just a bit, were spot on. Everything was right were it was supposed to be. Nice normal female ranges, which had been my suspicion all along when I was getting strange numbers.

So I'm a happy girl, and it is just one more indication that yes, I am intersexed. Thankfully now having dealt with it, and brough my life into sync, even my blood tests come out normal. So strange, but so cool!!!

Other news from the visit is my diastolic pressure dropped twenty points, and I lost five pounds! Such a damn fine thing!

I left the office with updates on my perscriptions, and an official "attagirl" from my doctor exactly three minutes before my shceduled appointment! It was a slow day for the office, so they were able to get me in way before my scheduled time. The drive back was as peaceful and uneventful as the drive down and I treated myself to dinner at Taco Bell. I also found out that in whatever way it's happened, my stomach has shrunk, and I'm just so totally eating less. This is also a good thing!

So, it was one of those days, a really good one!

No comments: