Tuesday, Feb. 23

We were up about 7 a.m. so I could get ready to meet an 8:45 a.m. doctor appointment. This was a three-month checkup to make sure there is nothing amiss since being prescribed a different cholesterol medication.

The exam included a fasting lab, so I could have nothing to eat or drink after midnight last night. My weight is up a little following the holidays, so I'll be working to correct that. Mother and I slacked off of going to Weight Watchers during the holidays, which probably wasn't a good plan.

My blood pressure, however, was remarkably low at 122/80. Results from my last blood work back in November showed my LDL (bad cholesterol) at 60, HDL normal.

The doctor was in a "talky" mood today, noting that her husband gets on diet kicks and over-buys whatever food he's into at the time, with some of it going to waste. The doctor, who is a very frugal person, hates waste (I'm with her on that). Currently, the family is trying to finish a large quantity of smoked salmon...a food she does not like, but is determined to eat so as not to waste it.

Then she got on the subject of clothing, saying that she hates to shop. In fact, her husband shops for her. Recently, though, he paid more for an outfit than she thought he should have, so she took it back and bought three other outfits at lower prices.

"I wear my clothes for about five years," she laughed, "before I'll agree to go shopping for myself." She's definitely no fashion slave, she admits.

After my session with the doctor, I sat for quite a while waiting for my blood work, since the lab nurse was very busy. When it came my turn, it wasn't a pleasant experience, since she couldn't seem to catch the vein in my left arm after digging around in there for several uncomfortable seconds, and had to go to my right arm. Now I have bruises on both arms.

While I was waiting for my turn in the lab, a guy in his fifties struck up a conversation with me about his concern over elevated cholesterol and blood pressure, which he attributes to his 70-hour work weeks in nearby natural gas fields. Rarely having a day off is taking its toll on him, he said.

As we were talking, one of the nurses rushed by with a cotton swab for the lab. Then she rushed back to an exam room and came through again with another swab. Earlier, I heard the doctor order a swab for flu, and I asked the nurse if there was an HINI patient in the clinic. She said she didn't know yet.

By the time I got out of the clinic, it was 10 a.m. As I was leaving, I saw a family bundling a child into the back seat of a car. I wondered if this was the one who needed the swabs, and if he or she was headed home or to the hospital.

I'd been filled full of conversation at the clinic, but I was decidedly empty of food, so I was ready for something to eat when I got home. Hubbie heated up the leftover egg casserole from last night, which we had with toast. Bless him, Hubbie had waited for his breakfast until I got home.

After breakfast, Mother came over, and we mixed more hand creams and bath salts. We didn't do anything else before having a lunch of leftover spaghetti, with cottage cheese.

Then we sat down to watch some of the Winter Olympics that I'd recorded on DVR. We were particularly interested in the ice dancing event, but we also watched some of the women's speed skating, and a little of the bob sledding.

Later, we watched the movie, "Hotel for Dogs," a PG film about foster kids who take care of stray dogs in an abandoned hotel.

The second movie we saw was "10,000 B.C.," rated PG-13. Prehistoric people speak perfect English and chase woolly mammoths. A young man falls in love with a young woman with blue eyes who is abducted, so that he has to embark on an odyssey to rescue her in uncharted territories, performing heroic deeds along the way. Giant birds and sabre-toothed tigers threaten. Prehistoric high fashion reigns in the form of dreadlock hairdos, and a tribe dressed like more advanced Mongols, riding on modern horses. Primitive tools mix with sophisticated ones. A pyramid-building advanced culture is discovered.