numbers

I have a doctor's appointment on September 16, a Thursday. Although I haven't settled on an exact date for my walk yet, it's very likely that I'll be training out to the east coast the night of Friday the 17th and starting the walk on Saturday the 18th, which is right around the time of Chuseok this year. Starting so early in September means a good part of the walk is going to be hot, but taking advantage of national holidays means I can get away with requesting two weeks of vacation while using those holidays to pad my off time. No one will question why I'm gone from the office if I do this right. Any extra days I might need will be a private matter between me and my boss, who's usually cool about that stuff. I always work extra hours to make sure I have the comp time to cover my absences.

While I won't have a cheat day, per se, during the walk, I am going to allow myself to be a bit more liberal about what I eat every day because I've seen, over the years, how long walks done day after day can lower my blood sugar, even when I'm guzzling soda and eating Snickers bars. I won't binge on Coke and candies this time around, but I also won't worry too much about my blood sugar on the days I do indulge in those things. And then, once the walk is done, I'll be back to the Discipline.

What I really wanted to talk about, though, is what I'm going to do the week before my doctor's appointment at Samseong Hospital. I plan to take blood-pressure, blood-sugar, and weight readings every day prior to the appointment. I know the hospital's equipment tends to come up with numbers that are 10%-20% higher than what my home equipment tells me, so I'll have to take that into consideration. After August 20 (a cheat day), I'll be going full-on keto right up until the appointment, and I believe I'm actually supposed to fast for 12-24 hours before I arrive at the hospital, so there'll be a day of no eating. (It occurs to me that I normally don't eat the day before a long walk, either, which means fasting on Friday the 18th. I do this to "reset" my body for the rhythm of the hike, during which I don't eat full meals until I reach my destination in the early afternoon. Fasting on both the 15th—before my hospital appointment—and the 17th—before my long hike—is going to be a bitch. Oh, boy.)

The first appointment on the 16th is at 11:40, I believe, and the second is at 12:15 or so, so these are going to be fairly brief visits—consultations to check how I'm coming along. I hope to astonish the docs this time around. From my previous visit, I learned I was supposed to be at the hospital two hours in advance to give a blood sample, and I now know where to go to get that done. I'll be at the hospital in plenty of time, this time around, to get everything done punctually. Hopefully, the lady who sticks the needle in my arm this time will be a little better about finding a vein so I don't come away all bruised like last time.

So you, Dear Reader, will get to see my numbers for the whole week before the appointment. If I can, I'll try to ask the docs at the hospital for their version of my numbers so I have a better idea of just how "off" my home equipment is. I'm especially interested in where my A1c will be. A 6 or so might be nice. I think the max for "normal" is 5.7, but I'll be happy with a 6. It means progress. I'll also be curious to see whether they conclude my heart has gotten stronger, such that they can take me off some of the meds I'm on. I remember, years ago, when I asked the local doctor about the role of exercise and medicine in influencing my numbers, and he said "70% medicine, 30% exercise." If that's true for me, even now, that'll be depressing because it means I won't be off my meds for a long time yet, and there are some meds, like metformin, that I'd really rather not be taking.

Anyway, that's the plan. Lots of numbers in my—and your—future.