So many doctors.....

 Let's recap:

*After being in the low 230s (and into the 220s) for 5+ years, by the end of 2019, as I was training for a 1/2 Marathon, my weight started to creep up, By the time the pandemic hit I was 239.

*At my physical in July 2020 I was 255 and my blood pressure was showing signs of being high and what I now know is a hernia was starting to effect my quality of life

*The pandemic did not end, life got more stressful with everyone still at home, overall pandemic stress, worrying about job loss (one of which worry did come true), moody teenagers, my weight got up to 272.0.

*Besides having my physical in July 2020 and my annual mammogram, I was overdue for my GYN (I was supposed to have it in April 2020 and by the time they were seeing patients again my doctor had moved away) and my colonoscopy (after I had mine in November 2018 my doctor moved to a new practice too far away

This is my hernia - Looking 20 months pregnant......

So last fall I decided it was time to start using the pandemic as an excuse for not seeing doctors and not taking care of myself. While my weight was stabilized, the hernia (or whatever - I didn't know what it was at that time) was making losing weight difficult. Or perhaps that was just my excuse. In the past, if I ate well for 1 week, I could noticeably see my stomach deflate some. Now that wasn't the case.

So I scheduled my colonoscopy and endoscopy for early March.

I had a physical planned for January but they moved it to June.

I found a new GYN and had an appointment in mid-February. And I emailed my primary and asked to be squeezed in before June and to order my blood work.

The GYN was pretty sure it was a hernia but scheduled a CAT scan which revealed it was a hernia (and thankfully not lots of other cancers it possibly could be).

The colonoscopy revealed 3 polyps, pre-cancerous, back in 3 years. Not fantastic news, but not the worst news. The endoscopy revealed nothing new so that doesn't need to be repeated next time! Even after all of the prep, I still looked 20 months pregnant (I didn't lose as much weight during the prep as I did last time, though my prep was "adequate")

My bloodwork revealed good kidney and thyroid function, okay cholesterol (numbers all within the normal range but I'd personally like to get my HDL and LDLs going to better directions) and my A1C right at 5.7 which is the very beginning of pre-diabetes, which obviously is not good. And my blood pressure was sky high at the doctor, but was able to be brought down, but still not fantastic.

My primary had me make an appointment with a surgeon about the hernia, and while he was very nice, he said I can't have the surgery until my BMI is at least 35 but preferably 30. So between 180 and 200 lbs. Yikes. But a good swift kick in the pants.

I have an appointment with my primary in June to have more bloodwork done and I have an appointment with the surgeon in July as a check-in (he said I could check in at 3 months, 6 months, or not at all. Sign me up for 3 months!)

So I've got some, lots of incentive here, to finally start getting back on track.