Checking In

As in, checking in with a check-up.

It was time for the annual physical.

Last week i went and got all the pre-testing done.  Blood work, ECG, and etc.

This week, it was time to get all the results and talk them over with the doctor.

My health is good overall.  My thyroid is still wonky, but it has been since i was a teen.  It's not going to suddenly start working correctly.

My C-Reactive Protein level was, for the first time ever, sky-high.  Since i have no other markers for any form of heart disease and my ECG is normal for me and none of my arteries are clogged and my blood pressure is 100/62 and all my lipid levels are low enough to be text book perfect, we are chalking that up to the sudden stress of the hornet attack that happened three days before the blood was drawn.  After all, it goes up because of stress, and having your hand swell up so much you have to cut a ring off is rather stressful.

One of the other things my doc checks for is early signs of dementia.  He does this by asking me to remember certain words while we discuss other things, asking me to spell a word backward, talking about the date and year and season, asking me to draw the hands on a clock to point to a certain time, and a few other things.  It's been the same test for three years in a row now.

As a joke, i went in with the clock drawn and the hands pointing to 3 o'clock, handed it to him and said, The words are apple, penny, and table, world spelled backward is d-l-r-o-w, it's May 18 and i delivered flowers last week for Mother's Day, and i already drew the clock for you.  Do i pass my brain test?  Do i still have one?

He laughed and told me i passed.  It's nice to have a doc with a sense of humor.

He asked about hot flashes and i said, are you kidding?  You know i'm always cold, thus the sweater in all seasons.

His response was, "That means that either your ovaries are still working, or you are menopausal and asymptomatic."

Either way, we don't care, i said, and he agreed and we laughed again.

The upshot, as noted, is i'm good for another year, with the exception of needing to cut down my thyroid pills to a half pill two days a week, and be retested in 3 months.  He doesn't want to over-treat, but he doesn't want to stop the treatment, since my goiter is now not even palpable.

It's nice to know you check out as far as medical goes.

Today is

Boy's Club Day -- founding in 1906

Circus Day -- the four Ringling Brothers opened their first circus on this day in 1884

Dance to Mark the Third of January -- Fairy Calendar (Third of January is when the Founding Fairy Fathers and Mothers arrived in what is now called Fairyland [no one knows where they lived before, or what lived in Fairyland before], so it is one of their most important days; no one knows why it is celebrated in May, either, but it might be because the weather is better)

Greek Genocide Remembrance Day -- Greece

May Ray Day -- to celebrate being able to go out into the sun's rays as summer nears

National Asian & Pacific Islander HIV/AIDS Awareness Day -- US (information at Banyan Tree Project)

National Devil's Food Cake Day

New England's Dark Day*

Plant Something Day -- because it's fun, and summer is coming so you can!

Praia Municipal Day -- Praia, Cape Verde

RHS Chelsea Flower Show -- Chelsea, London, England (the world's greatest flower show celebrates its 102nd anniversary; through Saturday)

St. Dunstan of Canterbury's Day (Patron of armourers, blacksmiths, blind people, gold workers and smiths, jewellers, lighthouse keepers, locksmiths, musicians, silver workers and smiths, swordsmiths; Charlottetown, PEI, Canada)

St. Peter Celestine's Day (Patron of bookbinders; Aquila, Italy)

Youth and Sports Day / Commemoration of Atatürk -- North Cyprus; Turkey


Anniversary Today:

Eric Clapton marries Pattie Boyd, 1979


Birthdays Today:

Rachel Appleton, 1992
Jordon Pruitt, 1991
Eric Lloyd, 1986
Kevin Garnett, 1976
Kyle Eastwood, 1968
Grace Jones, 1952
Joey Ramone, 1951
Archie Manning, 1949
Andre the Giant, 1946
Pete Townshend, 1945
Nora Ephron, 1941
James Fox, 1939
Francis R. Scobee, 1939
David Hartman, 1937
James Lehrer, 1934
Malcolm X, 1925
Ho Chi Minh, 1890
Nancy Astor, 1879
Johns Hopkins, 1762


Debuting/Premiering Today:

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith(Film), 2005
Smokey and the Bandit,(Film), 1977
"Room Service"(Play), 1937
Gone With The Wind(Publication date), 1936
"L'heure espagnole / How They Keep Time in Spain"(Ravel comédie musicale), 1911


Today in History:

Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America, 1535
Anne Boleyn is beheaded, 1536
Queen Elizabeth I orders the arrest of Mary, Queen of Scots, 1568
French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power, 1643
The Long Parliament declares England a Commonwealth, and England remains a republic for the next 11 years, 1649
King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River, 1749
*A combination of thick smoke and heavy cloud cover causes complete darkness to fall on Eastern Canada and the New England area of the United States at 10:30 A.M, 1780
Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Légion d'Honneur, 1802
Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the Mexican-American War and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for $15 million USD, 1848
Jan Matzeliger begins the first mechanized shoe production, 1885
Oscar Wilde is released from Reading Gaol, 1897
White women win the right to vote in South Africa, 1930
Margaret Mitchell's Gone With The Wind is published, 1936
Churchill and Roosevelt set May 1, 1944 as their goal date for D-Day (it had to be delayed over a month because of weather), 1943
The Soviet Venera 1 becomes the first man-made object to fly-by another planet by passing Venus, 1961
Croatians vote for independence, 1991
The Sierra Gorda Biosphere, the most ecologically diverse region in Mexico, is established as a result of grassroots efforts, 1997
Hundreds of Albert Einstein's scientific papers, personal letters and humanist essays were make available on the Internet. Einstein had given the papers to the Hebrew Universtiy of Jerusalem in his will, 2003
A rare 19th century torpedo is discovered off the coast of California by the US Navy dolphins, 2013