So There in Everyday Ramblings

Pumpkins and squash oh my. The squash at the markets look particularly attractive this year. I like the small green striped delicata ones best. They are easy to cook.

We are finally going to get a good solid rain today. The radar shows it hovering over the coast and that means it will be here in a few hours. It had been the driest autumn so far I have experienced in my various 40 years of living in the Pacific Northwest.

Yesterday I had a really helpful appointment with my primary care provider. Last time I saw her, she was rushed and seemed annoyed with me. That was when she prescribed the low dose blood pressure medicine. I was a little wary of this appointment to talk about the second drug, the statins, and to go over my test results.

I was also very cheerful because I got my five-year all clear and cancer free on the skin check earlier in the week.

She said right off the bat that she was concerned about the effect all this testing had had on me and that it was medical-i-zing my concerns about not being about to be active at a level where I could do group runs or bike rides.

It was a relief to be honest with her about my experience. I don’t understand how it can have been my heart causing the problem all along. She says it probably wasn’t but that during this last 7 years I have developed moderate heart disease and while they were looking at me they found it and now that they have they need to take it seriously.

She told me that she thinks the foundational problem is my overheating because of the treatment I had for my genetic mutation having to do with the way sweat functions in my body and while that causes discomfort it is not harmful and she suggested that I actually go ahead and push the limits the other doctors gave me.

She said it is okay if my heart rate spikes as I initiate exercise. That I don’t have to rein it in (speaking of my inner pony) as long as I don’t sustain that elevated heart rate.

I can do that! This is such good news, I know this may seem crazy, a 64 year old woman that wants to be able to go for an easy run whenever she wants but my knees are fine, I can manage the arthritis in my SI joints and she said she can give me a podiatrist referral if my bunion keeps acting up.

When I was in my mid 30’s I saw this dance troupe at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco preform this piece on some social justice issue and I sat there watching them and said to myself…I want to do that! I want to be in that group. I didn’t understand why I felt so strongly about it but I thought what the heck and I made an absolute pest of my self (in a relatively polite way) and two years later I was in that group and having a featured lift in a performance for Maya Angelo’s Public Broadcasting documentary about her early life and sexual abuse.

When I was in my early 50’s and Mr. Finch and I had our weekly open mic poetry reading I wanted to get better at reading my own work and wanted to take the voice class at our local actor’s conservatory. It was full then so I took acting 1 and everybody in the class was like…who is she??? Se doesn’t want to be an actor, she is some middle aged weird wanna be.

But I loved it! It is the most fun I had in my 50’s and I did go on to take the voice class and when at the end I stood on that stage and recited one of my own poems they all said, wow, she’s good…

And I am. :) Not that I do anything much with it these days, but I do know that when I have the opportunity to read my own work I am doing it justice.

The running? It is just like that. And I think my doctor got this and I appreciate that she did.
Earlier this week I ordered a two year subscription to Runner’s World.

I am going to figure this out and have a healthy heart to boot.

So there. All you male doctors.

Last updated October 06, 2018