More health issues?

!!!!

The doctor commented: "Your labs are probably better than mine." EVERYTHING was smack in the middle of the range it "should" be - glucose, cholesterol, liver enzymes, kidney enzymes, hematocrit, white blood cells....

So while I still need to watch sodium - and from what I've read, sugar can also influence blood pressure, so I'll be watching that too - I won't need to add any new medications or have new scary things coming up.

I'm especially relieved my kidneys aren't broken.

But my blood pressure was high again. It was lots lower when the nurse took it AFTER. But I'm still to try doubling the dosage of my beta blocker to see what that does.

The doctor did express concern that this could be as much an anxiety issue as a hypertension issue, and floated the idea of anti-anxiety meds if the beta blocker doesn't work. But I bet knowing that my kidney, liver, and pancreas aren't broken helps my blood pressure go down.

I also need to chill the H out (well, she didn't say that), but I already knew that. Figuring out how will be the trick.

And I can have "no more than one" cup of caffienated tea a day (I don't ever drink more than that). So that's one comfort returned to me. I can also have ibuprofen if I need it, and Mucinex if I get a cold.

I think I'm going to celebrate a little: I'm going to have a slice of whole-wheat toast with Nutella for dessert tonight, and I'm also going to surf around a little and find some kind of yarn I want to buy.

(And so I'm not totally selfish: I'm going to throw at least an equal amount of money at one of the many fine organizations that will help out with recovery from Sandy.

Oh, and my brother reported in: they made it through the night okay. He wound up spending the night shop-vaccing water out of the basement (the outside stairwell in leaks badly), and they lost shingles off their enclosed porch - but the power stayed on, they didn't really flood, and they're all fine.

I hope the loss of life from this thing is minimal and that the people who had property problems can recover quickly. Apparently there was a HORRIBLE fire near NYC where lots and lots of people lost their houses)