I could not actually say that I'm on the top of my health. I'm obese, my sugar, triglycerides, uric levels are high and I'm polycycstic to boot. I'm still not diabetic but I'm on my way there if I don't control my diet. I've always disregarded my doctors orders and I've always had dozens of wake-up calls but nothing as life-changing as what I've had recently.
On the first week of January, I contracted gastroenteritis which took out a quarter out of my allocated annual sick leaves. The upside of that, I lost the holiday pounds. It inspired me to lose weight further and I enrolled in a gym near our office.
So together with my annual OB check-up, I went to a cardio who supported me on my gym plans and an endo who gave me something to bring down my sugar. She also gave me strict instructions to go on a diet--which I tried to follow half-heartedly.
A few days after, I woke up either in the middle of the night and I couldn't see anything from my left eye. After furiously blinking, I regained my sight and went back to sleep. I forgot about it and went about my business. A month after, it happened again and on the same eye to boot! It scared the bejeezums out of me and made me run to the nearest available ophthalmologist at Asian Hospital to have my eye checked.
After checking my eye and not seeing any trauma, she referred me to another eye specialist and a neurologist. As the eye specialist won't be in until Monday, I went to the neurologist first. The neuro prescribed me to take an MRI/MRA and EEG. MRI stands for Magnetic Resonance Imaging. It's where your body/head is inserted in this machine which creates a magnetic field which in turn makes the nuclei in our body align and the computers pick this up forming an internal image of our body--without the radiation.
I scheduled all the tests at Asian on a Monday. After informing my boss, I rested and returned to the hospital on Monday.
I went first to the eye specialist who scared me further by saying that I might have ALMOST suffered a stroke in the eye. Based on my blood tests alone, there must have been a clot in my veins that must have caused my eye to temporarily lose its vision. He prescribed a 2DEcho and Carotid Doppler to look for that clot and a Perimetry and another test to detect if I'm at risk for Glaucoma.
With my mortality in mind, I proceeded to my EEG and MRI appointment and tried to fight the claustrophobia. I was subdued when my husband and I went home after the tests. I asked him that we pass by the grocery so I can buy my food for the week--which consists of kamote, salads and lowfat stuff.
The next day, I went to Makati Med as I wanted to have the carotid doppler done immediately for my peace of mind. Fortunately, I was able to get the results a couple of hours later and it was happily clear.
When I returned to my neuro that Saturday, he gave me positive results and said that my brain scans are normal. I just have migraine equivalence. I was surprised as I have not been experiencing any headaches but vision auras is one of the symptoms of a rare kind of migraine. He gave me Topiramate to treat it. He also informed me that a wonderful side effect of the drug is that it suppresses hunger pangs and with just one week taking drug, I can positively say that it works.
Later that afternoon, I had my stress test, 2Decho and ECG done as requested by my cardio as baseline tests. He also had me hooked up to a holter monitor which records the electrical activity of my heart for 24 hours. Yes, I had to take it home me and unfortunately, I could not take a bath for 24 hours because of it which kept me in the house during that period of time.
I'm returning to my optha later to get the results of my perimetry to check if I'm really indeed at risk for glaucoma. I'm also going to an allergologist and pulmo as I've been having allergy attacks either through rashes or asthma intermittently for the past year. I don't know if it's something I've been eating but it's really alarming already.
It's still a long journey before I can say I'm physically fit. Knowing that I really do not have a clot is not an excuse to skip my diet (besides, I'm not hungry most of the time). My goal is to say that I'm fit by the time I turn 40 which will be in 5 years time. It's a pretty doable goal and I'm on the way in achieving it. As long as I see my doctors and stick to my diet, I can do this.
