numbers and health check

blood sugar: 133
blood pressure: 127/80 (still normalizing)
weight: 111.5 kg (weight loss continues)
pulse-ox: 95%
pulse: 77
estimated A1c since 7/29: 5.89 (probably more than this)

I restarted the 3-month calculation as of July 29. I now know to add about 0.8 to whatever my A1c is showing; yesterday's blood-sugar spike also bumped the A1c upward. Over time, it'll simmer back down as long as I stay under 120 daily. Ideally, I should routinely be in the 80-90 range, but we have to be realistic. For the moment, I'm not too worried.

Today isn't a walking day, but yesterday, I think I did my fastest lap around the park: 14 minutes (12 minutes is my "regular" time, pre-hospital), without stopping, which is itself a milestone. Tomorrow, we move up to 2 laps. I also did a practice run with the stairs after the park walk, going up from B1 to the 2nd floor. That was tiring, and I was a bit dizzy, but I did it. I probably won't get much beyond 4 or 5 floors before David leaves.

In personal news: my buddy Mike is coming from the States, departing for Seoul on the 6th of September, staying nearly a week, then departing for the States on the 13th. So I'll have a few days to keep working on my numbers. Nighttime weather hasn't exactly been cool, but it's been cooler than in the daytime, with temps around 27ºC/81ºF. Not horrible, and a possible sign that summer is beginning to loosen its grip. As I've said before, September is generally a hot month in Korea; it's the tail end of summer, with the nights getting much cooler toward the end of the month as we move into October. I wonder how far I'll have progressed, distance-wise, by the end of September.

I decided not to go into the office to work today; I'm still working at home, and I'll do so for the remainder of this week. The boss wants to take me out somewhere for my birthday before David leaves (he leaves this coming Sunday; I can tell he misses home, but I'm thankful he's stayed this long). However, I did visit my office this morning after visiting the clinic in my building where my local doctor is. Got my stitches out, plus some advice on how to apply ointment and use bandages for the remainder of the healing. David came with me, and together, we visited my office afterward. My Korean coworker was manning the office alone, as he usually does early in the morning. I came in, turned on my computer, found a PDF I needed to work on, and emailed it to myself. With that done, David and I went back to Dongdaemun's Migliore building to look for that elusive bandanna, but the store was once again closed. David, however, found a street vendor selling exactly what I needed—and for cheaper than Migliore (W4000 as opposed to W5000). We then trundled over to Itaewon, where I went into a big-and-tall shop and got a large, black shirt that's similar to the one I lost when the paramedics cut my clothes up. David said he said didn't need to shop for anything more at either location, Dongdaemun or Itaewon. Lunch/dinner was half of Charles's veggie leftovers; I'll try to remember to photograph the rest on Wednesday, which is when I'm eating again.

Tonight's project, aside from working on company-related stuff, is to make some keto breakfast sausage with store-bought ground pork, home-ground bacon, and home-ground pork belly. I add the bacon and pork belly because the ground pork is from some kind of lean cut (tenderloin scraps? something else?) that doesn't have much fat. I'll also be prepping thick-cut bacon, pancakes, and waffles for next week.

If Saturday is my birthday, and the boss wants to take me out somewhere (I know my #3 Ajumma probably also wants to do something as her younger son is coming to Korea from Germany, where he has a life), I think I should fast on Friday as well. Better to fast off-schedule than to eat off-schedule, given the apparent precariousness of my health. Better to err on the safe side and not give my food too many opportunities to kill me.

All in all, a good, productive day.