Déjà vu
Chapter 8: One Year & One Month Since My Older Sister Passed
I’ve primarily been no contact with my younger sister for several years. The reason isn’t important, but let’s just say we see life very differently. However, last week her son, my nephew, texted me to say she had a heart attack and was undergoing a procedure to open her arteries.
Family relations can be complicated, but the connection isn’t. I quickly headed to the hospital. The same sense of dread I felt last August followed me across the bay to South City. Luckily, this time the outcome was better. The doctors managed to place four stents in my sister’s arteries, diagnosed her with full-blown type II diabetes, and three days later, sent her home to recover.
It has taken me several weeks to sit down and write this chapter. I haven’t known what to say, and I still don’t have a clear direction. This incident has scared me. I now see that no relatives, whether living or deceased, have been untouched by heart disease. I don’t want to keep heading down this same path.
The only completed column on my 25 for 25 Bingo card is “Work It!”. This column is dedicated to improving my health. A few chapters ago, I wrote about the activities I engage in to promote better mental and physical health. One of the items is walking 10K steps per day. I was hoping this would help my cholesterol numbers.
I had my annual physical the week before my sister’s heart attack. Blood work always accompanies the doctor’s visit, and while everything else looks good, my cholesterol isn’t. My good cholesterol is excellent, off the charts! However, my latest blood work shows that the bad cholesterol level continues to rise.
I decided to ask my doctor to put me on a statin after my sister’s recent hospitalization. I guess diet and exercise aren’t enough to fight the effects of the bad genes I’ve inherited.
Of course, I need to lose weight, ideally about 35 pounds. I aimed to lose that much this year at a rate of three pounds a month. (One of my bingo squares.) Weight loss hasn’t happened; my weight has stayed stubbornly the same, within a pound or two.
I have been researching GLP-1s, especially Tirzepatide, for some time now. I am not a doctor, so please do not treat my story here as medical advice. I’ve read numerous medical articles on the various ways Tirzepatide benefits the body, not only for weight loss but also for overall health improvements by reducing inflammation, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing bad cholesterol.
The thought of giving myself an injection once a week scares the heck out of me. But if a shot a week improves my cardiovascular system 10% or more, I can do it. I’m sick of sitting in a hospital room, and I certainly don’t want to be the patient lying in a hospital bed.
I also asked my doctor about this drug. Her advice was to wait three months on the statin and see the results before adding a second medication. I know insurance only covers this drug for diabetes, and I don’t have diabetes. Still, I wanted to give it a shot (yes, pun intended).
Maybe it was the fear of the moment, or just my stubbornness, but I didn’t accept her “not now” as an answer. There are many “telehealth” programs offering compounded GLPs at a fraction of what the non-insurance price would be, even if my doctor were to write me a prescription. I found one I’m comfortable with, ordered the medication, and am now in week four of this program.
Then, I joined a gym! I have not set foot in a gym in nearly 30 years, and here I was signing up with a trainer to start a strength training program!
These weren’t the changes I imagined when I wrote my last post. I thought I would meet more people at social events like lunches and cocktails. Instead, I’ve been lifting weights. I never thought of a gym as a place to meet new friends, but maybe this is the place I need to be for now.