A Milestone Birthday with a Side of Cholesterol

Posted by Cynical Sarah on August 25, 2008

My Mom turned 50 this year (sorry for the big reveal Mom), but perhaps more shocking than her turning 50 is that fact that she also becomes the mother of a 30-year-old this year.

It doesn’t bother me to be 30 this year. I don’t feel old by any means, and I’m probably way more active than I was at 20. But recently I found out what it feels like to be getting older.

I went to see the doctor for my yearly check up and asked to get a full workup done since I’ve been working out like crazy with no weight change results. I just wanted to be sure I didn’t have a thyroid issue that was holding me back. (Perhaps that was just wishful thinking, hoping there might be a bit of a quick fix instead of having to work harder.)

So along with the thyroid check, they took a look at my blood sugar and my cholesterol. As soon as she checked that box on the lab form, I knew that I probably didn’t really want to have that test done.

Both of my parents are on cholesterol medication, and there’s a very high probability that bad cholesterol issues are a family trait on my Dad’s side of the family.

Sure enough, a few days after getting my blood drawn, I got a call from my doctor’s office asking me to make an appointment to come in to discuss my cholesterol.

To simplify the issue, my bad cholesterol is high, my good cholesterol is pretty low, and the difference between the two means that my cholesterol is at moderate risk levels. That combined with my family history equals me having to pick up a prescription to bring my cholesterol down just a week before I turn the big 3-0.

Like I said before, I have no problem turning 30, but I do have a problem turning 30 and being on medication to correct my high cholesterol. Even if it’s a genetics issue, it still feels like it should be an older person’s problem, not mine.

I’ve got my fingers crossed that by the time I get tested again, the meds will have done such a good job dropping my cholesterol significantly so that perhaps I can try to keep it in the normal range with just paying better attention to what I eat. Instead of pizza every couple of weeks, I’ll have to cut it back to pizza every couple of months. We’ll be eating chicken and fish even more than our usual five out of seven days per week, and I’ll have to figure out where some of the rest of the extra cholesterol is sneaking into my diet to cut it out too.

On the plus side, one of my birthday gifts this year is pretty much designed to keep me feeling young. My in-laws bought me Wii Fit.

I’ve never been into video games, but Troy bought himself/us a Wii last Christmas while we were back in the Heartland to visit my family for the holidays. Wii Sports is completely addictive, and we’ve since picked up several more games that I just don’t get tired of. Because the Wii is a little more active, it hasn’t gotten as much use during the hot summer months here, but the timing was just right to add Wii Fit to our collection.

On Sunday, it started raining and cooling off a bit to give us a taste of what’s to come soon for fall. As the weather gets crappy I’m going to need something to help keep me motivated, and Wii Fit does just that.

It doesn’t take the fitness super serious, but there are some games on there that are fun and actually do get your heart going a little bit. I highly recommend the Hula Hoop as long as you don’t have to worry about throwing out a hip.

I may be getting older according to my cholesterol, but that’s something I don’t have to worry about yet. Happy Birthday to me!

- Sarah L. Polson

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Tags: health, humor

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