Doctor Visit

I saw my PCP today. He's encouraged me to lose weight for years, but hasn't gotten all strict about it, just gentle encouragement and support. Now that I am actually losing weight he is very, very pleased. I saw him in March and when he insisted on seeing me again so quickly, I knew he wanted to monitor my weight. Knowing that the appointment was on the horizon kept me on the straight and narrow over the weekend when things were so horrible, so it at least served that purpose.




When I saw him today, he didn't weigh me. He only asked how much more weight had I lost. I was a little surprised. He didn't flinch when I confessed it was only 3 pounds. In fact, he was quite pleased that I lost weight at all with two trips between visits, one of which was a cruise. Of course, he checked all my vitals, bp, pulse, etc. Of course everything was fine.



Then he said he wanted to have blood drawn, which was quite surprising to me. Blood was drawn at the March visit and everything was fine. He said he was very concerned about gall bladder disease and gall stones, and this was necessary to check my lipids & liver enzymes. Apparently there is concern about such matters when individuals lose large amounts of weight. He is a good doctor and has taken care of me for lo these many years, so I agreed. I don't expect there to be any problems. I don't have any symptoms of gall bladder issues. I have heard of people losing lots of weight on a low fat diet and then splurging on pizza and having an attack because their gall bladders aren't used to producing enough bile to process that much fat. I had not, however, heard of a link between weight loss and gall bladder issues. I go back in October for another blood draw.



We also discussed realistic goals. He's been telling me 165. He has said he doesn't get "hung up on all that BMI stuff," and had given me that goal which would still place me in the overweight category. I secretly had a goal of 154.4, which is exactly 100 lbs gone. I wasn't going to tell him and just show up in his office all skinny. The closer I get to both goals, the more I believe that 145 is not only attainable but also desirable. He agreed, but cautioned me to take it one step at a time. He's right about that. I'm still obese, but oh so very close to overweight.



I'll get there. I just can't be in a hurry and frustrate myself.