Had my Physical yesterday, and…

[Kingfish]

The good news is that I’ll be around for a bit longer. Maybe that’s the bad news for some.

I haven’t had an exam for over 3 years and it was time to get checked out again if I want to pull off a long distance ride this summer; you know... understand the facts and make sure I'm good to go. There was another reason though for going: I’ve had this occasional pain right in the center of my chest, like a dull ache, and was worried that my vices were catching up to me.

Got in early as birds go. Filled out the little questionnaire. I have a sense of humor, so when it asked me what was my method for Birth Control – I just had to put down “abstinence” :lol:

I don’t think they can help me with that condition.

The cursory results are interesting…
Weight = 158 lbs; slightly over where I’d like to be. I’ve been dieting the past couple of weeks to reduce my dimensions from portly dwarf to elfin slim. A few more pounds and I’ll be there.
Height = 64.75”. Dang, I’ve shrunk 0.75 inches since I peaked out 25 years ago. <sigh>
BP = 130-something over 89. Higher than my normal, but told this was still in the good range.

I have a new doctor this time. He’s a short Asian-descent fellow, about my size – and likeable; he told me that I’m in luck cos my last doctor who is of tall German stock had larger fingers. The prostate exam followed immediately; I still hated it. No problems there.

Now for the chest exam: Checks my ticker, checks my breathing – very thorough. Then we come to the salient point – examining where the pain occurs. I didn’t think it was related to the shrapnel wound from my youth, and it wasn’t. It was very surprising in fact how much pain that was there as he pressed the area; evidently I’ve been living with it constantly – and wasn’t conscience of it, only when it was aching more than “normal”, So then comes the news, the diagnosis…

He said my heart is strong, and my lungs are good and clear. The problem is that I have scar tissue around my sternum from… <drum roll> working at my desk programming – with my hands in close and on the keyboard. He said I need to stretch more, like a bird flexing its’ wings backward.

Gawd what a relief! I thought maybe I was a gonner with a bad heart.

Then he says I need a colonoscopy.

I think I’d rather have the heart condition.
Almost ready to race, KF

 

[HAROX]

I'm going for the #2nd on the old #2, too. Soon. Rob Peter, pay Paul. I like eating half a watermelon and a big bowl of butternut, so I have to stay invested. The food's just too good.
Heart ache loves celery juice by the way. From "Foods from the Bible"...

 

[ambroseliao]

Yo KF,

I would have a stress test if you're in your late 40's early 50's. I know from experience that this is where heart problems show up for some men and they suffer a small clot in their hearts called "Widow Maker!" Does your insurance cover anything like that?

 

[Kingfish]

@ Ambro: I'm self-employed. Way cheaper. Pay with cash and get 25% off.

I am too late for the stress test. Generally I low blood pressure, though my anger can get right up there like a painted Pict with a war hammer.

The ebike helps! For the last 3 years it's been making my chest larger from all the respiratory work; my shirt size went from small to where I fill out a medium pretty well. Other than a self-induced hangover or spring allergy, I have not been sick since riding the ebike.

I try to counter stress with humor. In fact - "fun" is the 3rd word in my business name :wink:

On the little questionnaire, they asked for family history.

For Dementia, I put down
For Depression I put
And Anxiety -> :x

Take chances ever chance you get. KF

 

[The fingers]

Colonoscopy really isn't that bad if you don't let them knock you out first. You can watch it on the monitor and it only lasts about twenty or thirty minutes. It reminded me of that movie where the medical scientists were shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the patient and then proceed to travel around inside the body; or one of those rides at the water park through a tunnel on an innertube. It's not really painful, if you relax and don't move you'll do just fine.
The prep stuff is the hardest part, you have to drink a gallon of colite solution over several hours and it really cleans you out a quart at a time.
I even watched the Doctor on the monitor snip off a pylop (didn't feel a thing) and got to walk right out of there when it was over and drive home. The best part is, you don't have to have another one for five years. :wink:

 

[salty9]

Colonoscopy really isn't that bad if you don't let them knock you out first. You can watch it on the monitor and it only lasts about twenty or thirty minutes. It reminded me of that movie where the medical scientists were shrunk to microscopic size and injected into the patient and then proceed to travel around inside the body; or one of those rides at the water park through a tunnel on an innertube. It's not really painful, if you relax and don't move you'll do just fine.
The prep stuff is the hardest part, you have to drink a gallon of colite solution over several hours and it really cleans you out a quart at a time.
I even watched the Doctor on the monitor snip off a pylop (didn't feel a thing) and got to walk right out of there when it was over and drive home. The best part is, you don't have to have another one for five years. :wink:

I was apprehensive before my colonoscopy a few years back and the proctologist told me I wouldn't be awake during the procedure. Like Martha Stewart I told him that was a good thing. Can you imagine the horror of being awake and discovering that you enjoyed it?

After the procedure I asked the doctor about my lower gut. He said he would give it an A-. Reassuring to know that I was not a perfect asshole anymore.

 

[dogman dan]

Interesting about the chest pain. Mine have always been from indigestion. A side effect of my current illness was the indigestion got a lot worse. Then I got pointed to the paleo diet, and the 25 years of indigestion vanished in 48 hours. Now that I got that in control, I can still have junk food, but don't get the indigestion if I don't eat junk 3 days in a row.

Along the way, I had the cardiac stress test. At the max effort level, my lungs and heart were good enough from biking to have a conversation with the nurses still. They were looking at me like . The doc just said why the frock was I in his office? Later that day, I had a nice collapse from the effort, that used up my ATP. Anyway, the home cardiac stress test I'd been using for years was proven valid. Pedal to a nice max effort level. then see how fast your pulse returns to normal. If it returns to normal fairly quick, you are ok. If it takes more than 5-10 min worry like hell. I think mine takes 2-3 min, depending on the effort level.

Back to your chest pain, maybe you should take up archery to build up and expand your chest. More fun than just pulling on a gym machine. A very light pull longbow would do the job of stretching you out.

 

[Kingfish]

Awesome Dogman!

Can you tell us more about the "paleo diet" please? I've cut back on the carbs for the past couple of weeks and gone from having tightness in my chest and slugginess to feeling pretty dang fly. Doc told me not to cut out carbs completely, so I ate a pizza yesterday for late-lunch :lol: Probably not in my best interest cos he said to cut down on Sodium too - and all those processed meats.

I would be very keen to try the cardiac stress test. Many years ago when I had the tree farm my BP was down to 115/70 and the nurse wanted to know what I did for a living. I've never been in better shape before or since.

Like the archery idea! I also thought of rowing:
Don't know how I'd pull it off but I would love to have a single or 2-person watercraft, something where I could run up a sail and tool around the lake. 'Course it'd have to have a lil' electric motor for trolling in and out :wink: But I think a couple of oars would do nicely too. Just have to figure out how to trailer it using my ebike

You guys that had the colonoscopy, can you tell me what it cost?

Thanks for the positive thoughts, KF

 

[salty9]

I don't know the cost. My colonoscopy was covered by insurance for which I pay dearly. One factor in colon health is fiber in the diet. I attribute my whistle clean colon to my morning oatmeal.

 

[TylerDurden]

I also thought of rowing:
Don't know how I'd pull it off but I would love to have a single or 2-person watercraft, something where I could run up a sail and tool around the lake. 'Course it'd have to have a lil' electric motor for trolling in and out :wink: But I think a couple of oars would do nicely too. Just have to figure out how to trailer it using my ebike

Put some pontoons on this...?

 

[23skidoo]

We do not yet have studies which have demonstrated that subjecting healthy people to colonoscopy saves lives overall.

We do not yet have studies which have demonstrated that changing to a high fiber diet protects against colon cancer.

Arguments in favor of these measures require a certain amount of arm waving and inference. This is not to say that one shouldn't do these things.

Best wishes to all.

 

[bigmoose]

Colonoscopy was a piece of cake. They put me out with versed. I woke up like a light switch going on and was fully awake and perfect. The nurse was chuckling, so I asked what I said. He said: "You don't want to know..." Never did find out... wondering what I babbled to this day.

 

[dogman dan]

The paleo diet is based on an idea I don't buy into. It's that you can't digest modern food well. You can only digest stuff a caveman could get.

I call it the No Italian food , no Mexican food, no chocolate diet. No fun. It excludes all grains, wheat, corn, rice, plus beans or potatoes. No dairy at all. Very limited fruit eggs and sugars since caveman couldn't get those in big quantites. Nuts allowed, but no legumes like peanuts. Really, it's just another atkins diet, but paleo actually came out a few decades earlier.

What works on it is mostly just limited carbs. Carbs make your liver work harder processing regular sugars into glucose, so if you have a weak liver for whatever reason, it can help to limit carbs. The person that turned me onto it has been on it 30+ years, helper her with post polio and cancer. It saps her strength to process the carbs into glucose, so she's stronger if she isn't asking her body to do that work. Working for me too.

But in my case, my real need to limit carbs is to starve out the wild yeasts that colonize my gut because I'm so weak. ( post viral fatigue from west nile virus) The yeasts produce toxic methyl alcohol and formaldehyde which make me extremely sick. After a few weeks of strict low carb eating, I get rid of the yeast for a while, and can afford either a pizza binge, or go to a bit more carbs every day. As soon as I smell the alcohol in my breath, I know it's past time I cut back to the strict diet. Till I figured it out, I had a headache for 18 months with never a day without it.

Most days I don't eat till 10:00 AM, after any work I'll be doing. Then I make an omelet that is mostly veggies just barely stuck together with an egg. I take probiotics, so I put cheese on the eggs. Fried in coconut oil since that is supposed to help my brain heal the damage the virus did.

Lunch tends to be meat, often smothered in green chile, and some steamed veggies, or maybe a no potatoes stew.

2nd lunch is a huge salad, about 3 pm.

Dinner is big meat, steak, salmon, smoked pork, etc. Big servings of steamed broccoli is common. Olive oil on the veggies.

Snacks is nuts and raw baby carrots. I eat a pound of the carrots nearly every day.

It's really helped me with my chronic fatigue, but the downside is I'm perpetually hungry. I can stuff myself with carrots and almonds and still feel starved. One slice of bread, and the hunger vanishes. Shows how primed for carbs my hunger switch is.

Went from 190 pounds, to stabilized finally at 165. Everybody says I look better, not just slimmer, but more energized. it's true, It really helped my disease.

 

[dogman dan]

Oh, plastic kyacks are really cheap nowdays. That's another way to row that works the chest. The very very best chest exercise is windsurfing.

You could have some of the wild yeast I have problems with. I had indigestion chest pains and heartburn for 30 years. It got much much worse when I got the fatigue. But it all vanished in 48 hours on the no carbs diet. 8) Wish I'd have figured that one out 30 years ago.

The yeast makes gas. The rule of thumb is if you blow it out your ass the good bacteria are at work, if you burp it up, you have bad bacteria and yeast in the wrong (upper) part of your gut.

 

[Kingfish]

For my body, Flatulence is directly related to two distinctly different factors:

• Consuming carbonated beverages – such as beer or soda. If I don’t drink beer, then I don’t have gas. Basic math.
• Poor ability to process certain types of complex carbohydrates (or that they tend to ferment). Classic examples are most beans (except fresh green beans), and potatoes. I’ve been fighting this one all my life. Canned beans, frozen beans, dried beans, fries, boiled potatoes, doesn’t matter. Even too much peanut butter can set it off.

If I avoid both then my “output” is completely normal and passive.

The higher fiber content really does help move things along though. I should have got onto this years ago.

I looked at a couple of boats yesterday.
Passagemaker Standard
Jimmy Skiff

Don’t know how I’d pull them to the lake just yet, but it was fun to explore. I tried wind surfing once; it didn’t work out. I’m more of a traditional sailor. Kayaks are pretty light; might look into that if I can solve the storage problem.

Best, KF

 

[dogman dan]

Yeah, what you eat definitely affects flatulence. Don't ever eat raisins and peanuts together. Trail mix is for backpacking for sure.

The main thing is it's coming out the wrong end. Burping, unless you drank carbonation, is a bad sign I've learned. It's the first indicator that the yeast is at work in my stomach. Stomach and upper gut are supposed to be pretty much sterile, and are in people with normal immune systems. So an occasional burp because you swallowed air is normal. If you are burping up a mouthful of what you just ate, then you got a big problem.

In normal people, the carbs that are hardest to digest like legumes and dairy have to be "fermented" in the lower gut. This is normal, and causes the farts. But the bacteria that do the digesting don't make methyl alcohol. They just make simple sugars that your liver then has to turn into glucose.

Windsurfing is a dying sport because it's so freaking hard to do. Lessons are crucial to get up the learning curve. But it's great "fun" exercise if you live near a sailing spot. Just rigging a regular sailboat is more exercise than many realize. The smaller sailers can be rowed, and often have oarlock mounts. Another good rowing option I always wanted to get is a whitewater dory. The aim being to someday do real whitewater with it. They can be fun in small surf too.

 

[makemymonkey]

Be sure to draw a on each cheek! A happy medical technican is a careful medical technician. :wink:

 

[kriskros]

aftermy last medical the doc made a very good suggestion....spread the ears and drive a new body in between them :lol: anybody got a spare

 

[John in CR]

aftermy last medical the doc made a very good suggestion....spread the ears and drive a new body in between them :lol: anybody got a spare

My problem is that I do have a spare, a spare tire and more. :lol:

 

[AussieJester]

Good to hear things are generally well KingFish but the question beeeegs to be asked...is the 'abstinance'
by choice or by 'bad luck' teehehe

@BigMoose..LOL..sorry ol fella, cant resist... perhaps you said something like "is that all you got?" or
"harder harder" soz my friend... just woke up still in a silly mood LoL

KiM

 

[liveforphysics]

I had a physical-ish check up today because my lungs were waking me up from all the gurgling while I would try to sleep. The doc took a quick listen and then took me to get my chest x-rayed, pneumonia and fluid in both lungs. Weak. I think this is why my road bicycling hill climb times have been sucking and I've been fighting blacking out while climbing and occasionally blacking out while coughing.

On the bright side, no lubed gloved fingers involved in this visit.

 

[AussieJester]

On the bright side, no lubed gloved fingers involved in this visit.

SOOOO..You immediately made another appointment then Luke? LoL

Hope the lungs clear up quick buddy, lay off the 'nangs' for a bit maybe teehehe

KiM

 

[Kingfish]

Good to hear things are generally well KingFish but the question beeeegs to be asked...is the 'abstinance'
by choice or by 'bad luck' teehehe

KiM

Weeeeell… I woz once married to a charming maiden; she was charming the first year, and then progressively less each following until she became my Hex-wife, meaning that she had long reaching claws after the split. Being a particular sort, I don’t sleep around, thus... the odds of finding a permanent mate are tall. Though I admit I need to get out more.

• My plight is sort of like the Farside cartoon of two alligators, one sitting in a recliner with a beer in um, claw… with his feet up and tail laid out almost relaxed except for the shocked bug-eye’d expression as his buddy, the pimpled face nerdy type with thick glasses who is reading Animal Horoscopes from the paper, saying…
  
  “Oh and here’s yours: You will not mate this year; maybe next. Poaching figures big…”

I’m trying to avoid getting poached cos as you see, the last one nearly made shoes of my hide… :|

Then of course there is the other analogy: I'm the male spider that got away - less one arm & a leg.

Luke - get well soon!

Freebird, KF

 

[AussieJester]

yup! I have to admit i have had a few of them over the years thankfully now, i have a 'keeper'

KiM

 

[dkw12002]

I hadn't ridden my e-bike since losing 50 lbs. and working out. Same bike I had to walk up most of a hill beside my home cause when I would pedal it as hard as possible, the motor would still shut off. Of course my 100-lb daughter had no trouble riding up the hill. Anyway today I decided to give the hill a try again at 143 lbs. vs. 195 lbs. from 8 months ago. No problem. The amped bike kit with 750 watts/ 36 volts tackled the hill just fine. I did pedal of course, but the front hub motor was not even warm when I reached the top of the hill, and neither was I. Now I will have to try out range again. I'm sure that has improved considerably too. My resting HR is 60 and my resting BP is 93/63 with no meds, so I guess I am in pretty good shape for an old guy (67).