Cholesto-rama

Got my cholesterol down from 251 to 234 in 4 weeks. Yay me. There's lots more I can be doing, so I am going to try to step it up even more to try really hard to get it under 200.

I guess this proves that the dairy really is what was doing it, not the IVF meds. I haven't completely given up dairy and eggs, just cut way back. I suppose when I was thinner my body was more tolerant of high fat dairy, but now I'm chunkier it reacts more.

Except...I just checked my old posts, and my lowest cholesterol level recently was while I was following the full fat dairy infertility diet, with cream-on-the-top milk and yogurt. Am confused.

Badgering

me: Yeah, my cholesterol shot up again, so I'm cutting back on cheese and eggs again, and trying to bump up the exercise.

aunt: Well, it's probably because you've gained weight.

me: Uh, yeah, but my cholesterol was 164 earlier this year, and I was heavier then, so I don't think it's as simple as that.

aunt: You should lose weight, though, because it's got to be contributing.

me: I know, but I don't think it's strictly a weight thing, otherwise my cholesterol would have stayed high all year. I am trying to lose weight, slowly, but I seem to have best luck with the cholesterol by cutting out dairy and eggs.

aunt: Yes, but you should lose weight. And exercise. What are you eating for breakfast?

me: Oatmeal, six days a week.

aunt: Oh, well that should have helped. And then what?

me: A frozen thing for lunch usually, or a sandwich.

aunt: So, that's calorie controlled. You need to watch the calories to lose weight. 

me: Uh huh. I know. 

aunt: Then what do you eat?

me: Well, I admit, at work, I often have a snack from the vending machine mid-afternoon. 

aunt: Ah-ha! Well, you've got to stop that. Take a small apple and some almonds to work and have those. That'll help you lose weight.

me:...I know I have to lose weight. And I'm sure now that I'm no longer going through the depression of failed IVFs and eating a pint of ice cream for dinner, it'll come off me slowly, but I don't want to diet because I always end up gaining it all back again, and then some.

aunt: Oh, you must stop eating ice cream.

me: I know. I have.

aunt: Because you'll never lose weight if you keep eating ice cream.

me: Unnnngh. 

Bah humbug, and other grumbling

I tested my cholesterol this morning, getting ready to go the docs to get a checkup in advance of potentially having no health insurance.  There goes my theory of my cholesterol being high due to IVF medications. I haven't taken anything for months and it was way high again (251). But I just don't understand how it can bounce around so much - I mean, it'll swing like 100 points - it was 164 a few months ago.

Anyway, I've been a slacker on exercise lately, although I exercised Thursday, Saturday and now today as well so I'm going to pick it back up again. I guess I shall have to go vegan again to try to bring the level down.  Sigh.  And I've been having oatmeal for breakfast consistently as well, so I expected it to be good. Bah frickin' humbug.

I'm being very bah humbug on faceb**k too. Honestly, what is so good about it? Every time I log on (which is rarely) I have several dozen little things people have sent me. OK, so it's mostly the same 2 or 3 people sending stuff - clearly everyone else has better things to do. But. Ugh. 

And finally, what is UP with the weather? Yesterday it was 88 degrees. Today it is going down to 50. What a swing. Although clearly I prefer this to being in California - every time I read about those fires, my heart sinks. I hope all my bloggy friends are safe!

Yours, grouchily...

Oh God, I just had to chew...

I couldn't keep it up any more. I just couldn't puree one more cup of soup, so I am breaking the detox. I am trying to still eat super healthily, and in fact, my dinner was just vegetables, herbs and spices so it's exactly what I would have made into soup, but you know, I got to use my teeth. Protein tomorrow, yay! I am planning on picking it back up again next weekend to try to keep the weight loss going. And then I'll transition back to 1700 calories a day, which will probably seem like having a Thanksgiving meal every day after this fast.

I tested my cholesterol this morning, thinking that I'd go book a physical with my doctor if it was good. But annoyingly it was sky high. In fact, it was 100 points higher than the last time I tested. 100 points! I am more and more convinced that IVF meds cause my cholesterol to spike. What's worrying is that it's been over a month since I actually took any meds so I dread to think what it must have been right after the IVF. I must get it down, so I must step up the exercise and start adding some cholesterol lowering foods. You'd have thought that 8.5 days on nothing but fruit and veggies would have dropped it down, but maybe it hasn't been long enough. Sigh. I guess if it doesn't drop soon I will have to go to the doc, but I know I can get it low again and I really don't want to have to take cholesterol drugs or have that as a preexisting condition. Although it may already be classed as a preexisting condition because of last year's spike. Double sigh.

Yay me

Remember how I had all those cholesterol problems last year? Personally I always thought it was from all the IVF meds.

At the end of July, I got my total cholesterol down to 190.  From a scary high of 264 in May that almost gave my doctor a heart attack, let alone me.  I tell ya, I'd have been straight on L.ipitor if it hadn't been for the whole "trying to get pregnant" thing.  Then I did an IVF cycle.  Next time I took it after the cycle it was 236, then 212, so my theory was holding out, but in a huge blow to scientific research around the world, it then bounced up again to 247 at the beginning of November, before my next cycle.  So I thought maybe it really wasn't the IVF cycles after all but was just bouncing around dependent on my diet.  My HDL cholesterol never got above 33, and several times was lower than the meter could register (25 is its minimum value).  If I'd been really dedicated to science I'd have measured it a lot more often on my handy dandy home meter but cheapness and laziness won out.  It would be interesting to measure it all through an IVF cycle though, just to see what happens.

Anyway, lately I've been trying to follow that infertility diet, you know, with the full fat milk.  Even though I'm good elsewhere, have oatmeal for breakfast, lots of almonds, am vegetarian, blah blah blah, I have cringed at the thought of what my cholesterol might be.  I meant to test it before starting estrogen patches for the FET but I was too much of a scaredy cat.

So this morning I decided to be a very brave girl and just see what it was before I start ramping up the patch dosages.

Total cholesterol = 164

HDL cholesterol = 42

I thankyouverymuch.  Hell yeah, am I fabulous or what?  OK, so the HDL is not as fabulous as it was before all this IVF nonsense (67 with a total cholesterol of 165), but at least it's above the level of 40 required for "good".  Yay me.  It definitely makes me less worried about possibly having insulin resistance, because I know that off-balance cholesterol readings and triglycerides are one indicator of IR.  Hey, maybe even the whole milk diet actually helped to bring the levels more into balance even though it's hardly a low fat diet?

Sunday, bloody Sunday?

So, I spoke too soon on me being all "healed" and better. My neck and shoulder pain is back with a vengeance, I am crampy and my lower back hurts. I'm going to blame this all on my impending period, and hope that I am back to feeling fabulous next week. But Jeez, just hurry up and get here already! I'm tired of the PMS-ing. It should be here today, I had spotting on Thursday and Saturday, and now I guess it's all sealed itself up tight just to play tricks with me. Well, maybe it'll make an appearance later today if I'm lucky.

Then I need to call the coculture scheduler to tell her about my "day 1", and then call the IVF nurse to go over the meds list and get the prescription sent to the pharmacy. There are a couple of items I want her to check with Dr. S. because he was rather vague when I last spoke to him ("um, yes, we could put you on estrogen in the luteal phase"). I think I know where "could" is going to end up if I don't push for more information, as it'll end up with "well, Dr. S. would have to prescribe it for you if he wanted you to be on it, and he didn't, so..." End of discussion. Whereas if the nurse checks it now and gets it written on my chart, I am good to go. See, I am learning how Big Clinic works!

I went out shopping today for a few items of clothing that I can wear to NY. I find it so hard, though, to buy sweaters and think of cold weather things when it is in the mid-80's. But November in NY is not the same as November in Florida, and hardly any of my cold weather clothes fit me, or are appropriate fashion-wise as they were purchased 10 or so years ago. But I got a sweater and a pair of sweat pants, so I think I at least have enough for the coculture trip. Maybe not for the IVF trip itself, but there's time to do more shopping between now and then. Any pointers for late November stuff? How cold is it really going to be?

P.S. retested my cholesterol and it was 212, with HDL at 27. Not great, but better than last week at least. I will just have to keep being good and hope it dips below 200 again soon, with that HDL hopefully coming back up too.

Good gravy

So, remember after the whole "you have hepatitis C and a monster cyst on your ovary" scare, I went to the doc who pronounced that my cholesterol was rather shockingly high (with my HDL cholesterol being rather shockingly low)? No? Well, I do. So there. Anyway, as the doc knew that I was trying to get pregnant he said we wouldn't try statins straight off but see how I did with diet and exercise.

So I dieted and I exercised. Like a maniac. Not so much a weight loss diet, but a cholesterol lowering diet. And I managed to drop 60 points in 6 weeks by basically going vegan. I thankyouverymuch. I am the star, I thought. The cholesterol-lowering queen. I bought a home cholesterol meter, and managed to get it down further to a fairly respectable 192 with further dieting and exercise. OK, so the HDL didn't come up spectacularly, but it came up, that's the main thing. I didn't bother going back to the doc, because I figured I'd just keep buying the home testing strips which were cheaper than a doctor's visit. Except I didn't keep buying them. Instead I went off and did an IVF. And I thought that maybe the IVF meds had been what had caused the cholesterol spike in the first place, so I'd wait a few weeks before testing again. And a few weeks stretched somewhat. And I never tested again.

I finally went and bought some test strips today. Dagnammit, if the total cholesterol isn't back up to 236 and the HDL back down to 25. Jeez louise, I have been eating healthily! It shouldn't be like this, I mean, I'm a vegetarian for eff's sake. Now I'm really going to have to try harder. AGAIN.

Makes you think, though. I wonder if IVF really does do a number on cholesterol levels?

Random post

Hey, got my cholesterol down to 192, according to the handy-dandy home meter. Whoop! That's continuing the pace of a drop of about 10 a week, for 7 weeks now. I'm pretty happy about that.

Messed up the HDL reading, as I didn't put enough blood on the strip the first time, and then tried again with the same strip and of course you're not supposed to put two lots of blood on the same stip. Then I managed to drip all over the coffee table and the instruction book.

And....action!

After what seems like an eternity, things are finally slotting into place. The scheduler called me, and I am on the schedule. My place in line is booked. At my last clinic, I never had to worry about a "schedule" because they didn't have one. They weren't working to capacity, so didn't have to worry about slotting people in. You just cycled when you cycled. But Big Clinic is, well, big. And they strive to "only" have 10 egg retrievals a day. AND they have their funky lab closure schedule. So there's a whole jockeying for position thing that you have to book your place in line early enough so that you don't get bumped to the following month.

But, phew. I am in, providing no cyst or bloodwork mishaps.

I also have the prescription for the ultrasound in my grubby little mitts. OK, I lie, it's in my grubby little email account, but same difference. I have some forewarning that the crimson tide will arrive tomorrow (a.k.a. spotting) so I should get the ultrasound on Thursday, and then I will know what's going on. At least for now, that is, as we all know that things can change quickly.

In other news, I splurged yesterday on a home cholesterol monitor. My next cholesterol blood draw will be just after the IVF, and as I think the IVF meds affect cholesterol levels, and partly caused the spike in the first place, I'd really like to know what it is before I start taking anything. And I wanted to know what it is now, to see if what I'm doing is working. Although I could call the doc for that information but hey, that involves a phone call and it's all so much effort. I'm VERY pleased to say that, after 6 weeks of dietary modifications and exercise I've got my cholesterol down from 260 to 202. Whoop! Of course, that 202 isn't official, as that wasn't drawn at the doctor's office, but I'll take it. It's nearly good. Hopefully it will be good before I slap that first estrogen patch on my butt.

Oh My Fucking Gawd

I am one of those people. I made the 5%. Satistics were my friend for once.

The blood tests were negative!!!!!

No virus, no antibodies, normal liver tests. It was a false positive. I do not have hepatitis C. All that worry and angst over the damn positive test for nothing.

I am SO relieved. Can't even begin to tell you how relieved. More than fucking relieved. I am utterly dumbstruck and amazed. My cholesterol was sky high, though, so he wants me to try dietary/exercise modifications and go back in a month when we will retest the hep C just to make sure and retest the cholesterol again to decide whether I need treatment.

Thank you God.