"많이 좋아졌네요" (wow, much improved)

I did my 1.5 staircases early this morning, then took down my numbers. 

Home
BP: 122/81
BS: 91 (then 30 min ltr) 79
PR: 72
WT: 101 or 101.5

Blood pressure was much better than expected: almost a classic 120/80. Blood sugar was interesting: I took two readings, the first of which may have been too soon. 91, then 30 minutes later, 79 (metformin kicking in?). Either way, both readings are pretty good. Pulse was 72 beats per minute, and depending on how I rocked back and forth on the scale, my weight registered as either 101 or 101.5 kilos (222.7 lbs. or 223.8 lbs.).

Then I went to the hospital. 

Of course, some of my numbers were way up thanks to hospital-related stress:

Hospital
BP: 159/93
BS: 76
A1c: 5.7
PR: 119
WT: 101.3
HT: 185.1 cm (6.07 ft.)

So at the hospital, my BP was 159/93, and my pulse was 119 (partly from stress, partly from rushing back and forth between the blood-sample office and the diabetes center). But when I consulted with the diabetes doctor, she said my fasting glucose was 76 and my A1c, which is what I was really interested in, was at 5.7. That is, frankly, much better than I expected. Technically, 5.7 is the high end of non-diabetic. The doc did note the high blood pressure and pulse, but I showed her my records from this morning and explained the stress factor, so she understood my situation. According to her, I'm on the verge of shaking off the diabetes. Lose some more weight, and we're golden. She also noted that my triglyceride count is way down and much improved, so no more hyperlipidemia. 

I think what I've been doing has been the right path forward, and the icing on the cake is that the doc is taking off one of my meds (metformin, formerly twice a day, is now once a day, which is nice, but I'm still not happy about being on metformin at all). I hope to take off more meds on my next visit, which will be on December 16th.

The stroke center, meanwhile, also affirmed that I have greatly improved, and they dropped the dosage on some of my meds, but not the number of meds (as I've said, Korean docs are cautious and conservative). So I'm on my way, it seems, to being free of diabetes and possibly losing the rest of my meds. I have a feeling they'll keep me on BP meds, though, as long as I keep stressing out every time I visit the hospital. But we'll see how that goes. If I get really serious about cardio, I might finally be able to see the doctors without feeling any stress. Meditation will probably help as well. 

All of this helps define where I go from here. I'll be setting new goals for 2022; luckily, I've already met most of my goals for 2021, except for strength. But that can wait another year. I've got the rest of my life ahead of me, after all.

ADDENDUM: something occurred to me: at the hospital, I was weighed in at 101.3 kg, which is about halfway between the 101 and 101.5 kg I weighed at home. Here's the wrinkle: at home, I weighed myself while only in my underwear (don't try too hard to imagine that... I still don't look like Hugh Jackman or Chris Hemsworth). At the hospital, I was weighed with my clothes and shoes on. Clothing and shoes can add 1 to 2 kg to your final weight. A lot of people don't believe me when I say that, but try it: weigh yourself à poil first, then put some clothes and shoes in your arms and weigh yourself again. I guarantee you'll be 1-2 kg heavier. So does this mean the hospital is saying I'm actually under 100 kg? If so, that's a big milestone for me. Not that it matters overly: I count on being 90-some kg by the time I reach Busan.

ADDENDUM 2: looks as though I won't be cooking for the office tomorrow, despite having a nearly completed Moroccan-chicken dish in the fridge: the boss has been waiting for a phone call from our Korean franchise owners, who are supposed to give us a road map of where to go with future textbooks, but despite their having promised to call the boss by 4 p.m., there's been no call thus far, so the boss is saying "fuck it" and giving us both the rest of today off and tomorrow off, which means an extended Chuseok weekend for my coworkers and more final-prep time for me before I start walking in earnest on Saturday. Sometimes, life is really good, although I admit I'm disappointed I can't feed my coworkers. I'll make the dish tonight, anyway, and freeze it. I hope it'll still be good come October.