January 20th - Blood Tests Are In

Blergh - the kids slept rotten and got up at 5am...after numerous trips to our bed. I feel tired today but having said that I got up and walked...half because I was jack of being in bed and half because I guilted myself. It was hot this morning but its nowhere near as hot as the last few days have been.

I did yoga again last night and at the moment thats going to be my off walking day activity. I will eventually walk everyday and yoga a few times a week at night. I love the yoga and felt really quite limber for it this morning. Its all making a difference. I saw a friend yesterday for the first time since christmas eve and she said I was looking very well. That makes me feel good.

Beans on toast for breakky this morning - very satisfying. Lunch was a ham and salad sandwich and dinner is going to be steak and salad.

I got my results from the doctors back today from the blood tests I had done Monday.

Overall they came back well. I have not been contacted yet by my doc so I will see if that happens.

Iron levels were good, renal function test showed unlikely to have any signs of kidney disease (checked because I was feeling dizzy and I have diagnosed hypertension), Alb/Creatinine tests normal, mid stream urine test fine, thyroid great and FBC within acceptable ranges.

I have an elevated liver function result - only elevated by 14 points. Im not sure what that means exactly but I have been told some medications can elevate it as well as fatty liver. I fall into so many of the categories of someone who s likely to have fatty liver that I wouldn't be suprised. But as I said before my doc will call me is he is concerned.

The cholesterol side of things were of interest to me. I had blood tests done in July 09 and the results were as follows:

Cholesterol - 4.8
Triglycerides - 4.1
HDL - 1.0
LDL - 1.9
Coronary Risk Ratio - 4.8

Triglycerides are suppose to be below 2.0 and so as you can see these are quite high.

These are the results from Monday:

Cholesterol - 4.5
Triglycerides - 2.3
HDL - 0.9
LDL - 2.5
Coronary Risk Ratio - 5.0

As you can see there has been a raise in the LDL (although still within acceptable parameters) and there has also been a raise in my CRR. I am not sure how that is determined - but it has risen by 0.2 and I wonder if that's because of the increase in my LDL. My HDL has fallen a little too which puts me outside the acceptable parameter, so I need to address that in my diet as the HDL is called the good cholesterol.

But the two most promising things are the drop in my overall cholesterol rating by 0.3 and the almost halving of my triglycerides. This is really positive as I have always had elevated triglycerides. I am now only 0.5 outside the acceptable range.

I can guarantee you these changes have only come about since I have been making positive changes to my lifestyle. I know that from July to December 09 I made no positive impacts on my health as I was eating the wrong food and not exercising. in 5 short weeks I have made such an impact on my overall health that its really inspiring me to strive for better results. If I get called into my GPs office its only for the better - and we can address whats happening. If he doesn't call me then I know my positive actions are making an impact on my health.

Overall I am happy with the results. The dizziness I complained about last docs visit has all but stopped now and so it did seem to be self limiting.

I will have these tests repeated in 3 months - just to see some improvement.



PS I get more nervous looking at the FBC than anything else!