For years, I was struggling with dizziness, severe headaches, exhaustion, muscle cramps, and obesity... To name a few things. After several months of it getting worse and worse, I finally went to the doctor in March of 2015. I was put on blood pressure medication and had blood work done. In May 2015, I was diagnosed with high cholesterol and as pre-diabetic. The doctor said, "you're not walking towards diabetes, you're running towards it." Something had to change. The doctor recommended that in addition to medication for the blood pressure and cholesterol, that my main focus should be on weight loss. I was 120lbs overweight so it would not be easy. His recommendations? Find whatever program worked for me that focused on high protein, low carbs (as this would help with the diabetes, too), and to keep my calorie count under 1200 per day. I researched programs, couldn't find one I liked, so I made my own and started on it. For the last 2 years I have been going in to his office monthly... Yes, monthly. That's a lot. The main reason for this is that he put me on a pill that is an appetite suppressant and because it is a controlled stimulant, by law, it requires an office visit to get the refill for the prescription. Most people are only on this medication for 3-6 months. I've been on it since August of 2015, it's May 2017, so it's been a long time. The good news is that I lost 81.8 lbs. The bad news? I hit that milestone 2 months ago and I have stalled out, in fact, I have been fluctuating between the same 3 lbs., going up and down for those 2 months. It's driving me crazy!
In all this time, my doctor has never asked me test my daily blood sugar. He has never asked me to address that issue. He has just said that my A1C levels have barely dropped, but they have gone down. I don't have the exact numbers in front of me, but if I remember correctly, the very first time, they were 6.1, then 5.9, then 5.9, and now are 5.8. Which, again, if I'm remembering correctly, is still in the pre-diabetic range.
As I started losing weight, I started noticing other things. The hard bump on my forehead... How long has that been there, my whole life? (Still haven't asked the doc about that one). The lump on my back, that on occasion bugged me, became more prominent, I could now feel that it ran along one of my ribs. I asked the doctor about it sometime last year. He felt my back and said, "oh, that's just a lipoma, it's benign." What? No scan, no biopsy? You can tell that by feeling it from the outside? I hoped he was right (still hope, actually).
On March 23, 2017, I had a regularly scheduled appointment with him. All looked good, I left his office. Soon after leaving, like within the next few hours, I discovered a lump on my neck. It is in the very center of my neck (not the sides), and is about in the area where your chin meets your neck. Having just seen the doctor that day, I decided I would keep an eye on it and ask him about it the next month... And of course, Google it. 😀
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