Dammit, man!

The dreams I had last night were quite bizarre. I imagine it was because of the food coma that I lapsed into before 8pm. There was so much food at my uncle's house, and it was all delicious! I seriously came home from there and laid down, and of course I knew I'd be down for the count. Or at least until the dogs and/or Steven woke me up around midnight or so like the night before.

So during my first round of sleep, I had strange dreams about travel and weddings. Somehow these were mixed, yet separate. I don't know quite how to describe it, as it seemed my dreams moved back and forth from one subject to another. I do remember that I was going to travel somewhere, and I had parked my car at a McDonald's, backing it into a parking space. The land next to the parking lot was filled with kudzu and huge ant hill piles, and there was an ant hill just a few feet away from my car. I decided I needed to move my car, as those ant hills tended to grow fast and I didn't want to return from my trip and have my car engulfed inside an ant hill.

At some point during this mixture of dreams, I dreamt that I was at my mother's house - not sure if it was the one here, or the one in England. But I was getting the grand tour and was having to leave suddenly through a side exit, and we walked over a type of see through floor and venting system, and Mom said "you know, we have that swimming pool downstairs". WTH Neither of their homes has a swimming pool, either inside or out.

So another part of this dream mix had to do with weddings. Mine and Brian's, specifically. For some reason, we had decided to have 2 weddings, about 2 weeks apart. Not sure why we would have made that decision, but oh well, it was just a dream. I had a really pretty lavender dress, floor length, for one, and for the other I had this floral print dress, floor length also, that was actually made out of the same print as a skirt I currently own. Both of the dresses were like evening gowns, but not in stiff, icky material - very fluid, blows pretty in the breeze material.

I don't recall dreaming about the actual ceremonies, the only parts I remember were the dresses, and at one point kinda running down the street of what looked like Five Points in Columbia, SC, looking for either a friend or family member who was lost.

And as I figured, I woke up somewhere between 1230am and 1am, and piddled around online for a little while. Steven was still up, we chatted a while and I went back to bed.

During dreams round 2, I dreamt about my job, and that I quit suddenly. There were a lot of people there that I didn't recognize, some that I did, and the whole building and set up were quite different from what my current real job is. I left the premises my last day, but then suddenly went back to discuss my issues with the CEO. Nothing was resolved in the dream, I was left in limbo with the company.

And that was my evening of dreams. Now onto the phone call I just got from the doctor's office - sooooo not what I was expecting on Black Friday. Truly makes it a Black Friday for me though.

I have to get routine bloodwork every 3 months or so since I take a drug called maxzide for blood pressure and swelling, and it contains 2 separate meds, one for water retention and the other for the blood pressure. Apparently the bloodwork shows that the drug is taxing my kidneys and making them work too hard, so they are cutting the dose of my current drug in half, and adding a separate drug called lisonopril (sp?) to help keep the bp down. This concerns me only because I want to make sure my feet and hands don't swell on the lowered dose of maxzide.

Then they tell me my cholesterol is high - duh! It always is. Total cholesterol is 231 (shouldn't be over 199). LDL, the bad cholesterol, is 141, which is too high (I think she said they shouldn't be over 100). HDL, the "good" cholesterol, is 52, which is good, as it is supposed to be over 39. My triglycerides are 190, which is not good, since they should be below 149. And since I've had the muscle/joint pain due to lipitor, and the nightmarish hot flashes feeling like waking up in FLAMES and my skin red and blistered looking from taking niaspan, the nurse suggested I take 1,000mg of Omega 3 Fish Oil 3 times a day, and of course cut the fat from my diet. She also suggested that I make sure to get the "burpless" kind, as otherwise I may burp *fish oil* all day. That just sounds disgusting, so yes, I will make sure to spend the extra couple of dollars on the burpless kind, as God knows I don't want to taste freaking fish oil all day long.

So then I asked her about my creatinine levels, as they were elevated last blood work. She said that was why they were concerned about my kidneys, as my level is 1.13 and it shouldn't be over 1.0. After getting this news on the last set of blood work, I did a little research and found that creatinine is the waste product of muscle metabolism, and elevated levels can be considered normal in persons who work out regularly and/or have a larger muscle mass than the "normal" person has. I made a point to tell the nurse what my research found last time, and that perhaps this was the case for me, as I do work out regularly, and I've always had a larger muscle mass than the average woman (and no guys, titties don't count! LOL) She said she would mention that to the doctor, but in the meantime to still follow the prescription changes that were ordered, which I will gladly do.

I also mentioned to her my concerns that cutting the maxzide may not eliminate enough of the fluid and asked her what to do if my feet and hands were swelling again. Of course I got the "make an appointment to come in an be evaluated further" advice, which is what I figured.

It looks like I get to really start watching the diet and continue with the exercising so that I can try to get the cholesterol within acceptable levels, and all of this will also help me reach my goal of being in the shape that I want to be in, by the time I see my husband again! Time to get serious with this shit and just do it. Now, where's my measuring tape????? Gotta keep up with the progress!

Have a great weekend y'all - don't go nuts with the shopping!!!