I just got back from my visit to Dr. Kirk. This was a good visit. I had the good news for her that I was feeling much better than I was on last visit. And she had the good news for that I was doing many of the right things.
I have been able to take less of the Lyrica. I’m down to 75 mg in the afternoon and 150 mg at night. I was taking an additional 150 mg in the morning. I have found that if I take my meds at lunch instead of at breakfast, I feel better during the day and can get a lot more done. I’ve been able to really take my dyeing and spinning business seriously and to what I think is the next level. This isn’t a hobby anymore.
My blood pressure this morning at her office was 130/88. That probably doesn’t sound so great to most of you. But I haven’t had any blood pressure medication for almost 48 hours. She thought that I might be over medicated and it would be a good idea to stop the diuretic. I’ve been on a diuretic for almost 20 years. For a long time, that’s the only thing that would control my blood pressure. We’re going to try having me take just the Lisinopryl (20 mg) and we’ll see what happens. I’m hoping that it will control my blood pressure and that I will have more energy and be less likely to have kidney problems later.
And speaking of kidneys. My blood sugar level was up just a bit when I had the blood work done in early January. We both seem to think that was because of traveling, the stress and pain, and poor eating habits during the trip. I’ve since cut out almost all sweets and sugared softdrinks. I will still have an occasional piece or two of candy and yesterday morning I had about half of a 20 oz real Coke. But I’ve been using Splenda in my coffee and drinking water and cranberry juice/fruit juice drinks with no added sugar. Part of me believes that the reduction in sugar is part of the reason I’m having less pain, too.
The other bad news from my blood work was that my cholesterol/triglycerides were up. I’m going to have to cut continue to cut out the sweets, eat a somewhat low-carb diet, and cut out the sausage/cheese/egg breakfasts (though they are low-carb!)
Anyway. I’m working on getting the meds down. If I can get more exercise, I may be able to lose weight, get off of the blood pressure meds completely, and maybe also off of the Cymbalta. But those are rather long term goals, to say the least. First let’s cut back on the Lyrica and diuretic and see what happens.
