Check Up Time

Why anyone would make an appointment for a check up in December, almost Christmas week, is beyond me, but then I am apt to do such things, and I did. Not only did I see the new doctor for a second time this year, but also the eye man. I'm not sure I am happy walking around all day with huge brown eyes that look like an owl took residence within, but the checkup was good and I do not have to spend money on new glasses, and the cataract is still slow growing. A reprieve, as I thought for sure I would be told I'd have to have it removed. I told the doctor I was trying hard to beat him out of this operation and the expense but he just laughed knowing he would win in the end.

As for the new doctor, I like him. We had our first visit and established who was going to be the boss of what I put into my body. Strange how quickly he could come up with the reasons he was right and I was wrong. He is following my blood pressure which I think is fine. I am not having any new and different body events happening so 'it must be as it should be at this age'. He tells me noway, it has to come down as it could cause inner changes in the organs that keep you alive, so I have lost my crown for not taking prescription medication and have agreed to try one that has a name a yard long and lower my blood pressure from 173 hopefully to 143 to keep him happy. I remember the days it was 120 over 24, but then I was twenty-four. When I walked into the nurse's station and she took my blood pressure she had a reading of 200 over 90 which sent her into shock as she was thinking she had better call the paramedics and get me to the hospital before I had a full fledged stroke . . . but I calmly asked her to take the reading on the left arm, because my right arm was injured once upon a time and I thought it gave a bad reading. She took it again to see the familiar 173 over 80 and gave a sigh of relief. She told me to be sure next time to tell her use the left arm only. How was I to know that when I pulled a muscle closing a van door which did not cooperate that I would have pain forever. Katrina the Great never bothers with those small things because it would heal and be fine . . . well, she was wrong as usual and it fires up more now that I have lost my graceful get up and go and use the arms to uplift the body from a seating position. I hope you are laughing, I am, as I have a captive audience to listen or not, shut off the blog and my moaning and groaning which I am thinking of as polite conversation between the ages. Well, as my friend used to say when anyone started to complain, ' go ahead complain, no one listens' and she was right. I am really only expounding the virtues of events that lead to growing older. Everyone is doing that!

It was really a fun visit as the office ladies are great, and in full Christmas spirit having decorated a huge tree with lots of lights . They have stuffed beanie baby animals dressed in holiday costumes to sell for the cancer fund. I have my eye on a couple so will have to stop in this week and pick some out for decorating my packages. I brought over a tin of homemade cookies for their coffee break but forgot to tell them I didn't double the eggs in the chocolate chip cookies like I should have and they came out very crispy. I hope no one breaks a tooth. They really taste great but I was afraid to use the word dunk thinking they may think I added cement to the ingredients. I did bring the doctor a copy of "So You're Going To Have a Baby" . . . he and his wife have just had their third child in as many years, and I wasn't being facetious, but hope they will laugh out loud at the stories I told. I also gave him the "Stories To Tell" which he will be able to read to his children as they grow.

So, if it is time for your checkup, I hope your visit is a good one and that you come out without prescription medicine and start a regime of healthy habits so you will live life in abundance. Breathe deep, walk a lot, eat lighter and forget the words of the older generation about cleaning your plate and remembering the starving children of China... those kids are some of the best athletes in our world with great muscle tone and no fat on their bodies . . . now that should tell us all something. Look at that bevy of beauties in their dance costume, granddaughter, Erin is second from the left and if you notice they certainly do not have a weight problem. So the answer lies before us....move.....walk.....dance......and eat a piece of chocolate now and then. Make your day a good one.