nagasaki's Journal

 Numbers this morning are:  BP 92/55.  Heart rate 77.  Had my six-month checkup with EP this month.  No change - continue with nebivolol, digoxin and aspirin same dosage.  Encouraged more exercise (water aerobics?) and suggested a supplement called red yeast rice extract (which it turns out behaves like a statin) to bring down LDL (which was 118 in March - <99 being best).  Upon emailing my naturopath I was dissuaded from taking it because of it having similar problems as statins.  My blood draw for homocysteine was normal but the other one for hs-CPR was very elevated.  Less than 1 is good.  My level was 6.5.  This is a marker for inflammation/infection which is used to correlate for risk of stroke or heart attack probably due to plaquing.  The results came back also from the carotid artery screening I had a Lifeline Screenings.  That had not changed from the past 2 years - mild to moderate plaquing not to worry.  So the EP has referred the hs-CRP findings to his lipid specialist and I haven't heard back yet.  I don't feel any unusual discomfort but I have been feeling somehow weaker lately.  Less stamina.  I see I need to schedule an ultrasound of my kidney to check the benign cyst that has been there for some years now.  Also due for a dental cleaning.  My back continues to be a daily challenge.  I go back and forth between trying Flexeril at night for it or extra Calms Forte to sleep more deeply so the muscle spasm will relax.