Let's get physical!

As I have posted before, I have been planning to see a new primary care doctor.  Today was the day!  A lot of my friends see a doctor that is associated with MIT and thankfully he can also be a primary care doctor.  I decided to go to him for my annual physical this year.  I am glad I did.  For the first time in a long time, I had a doctor who wanted to hear my concerns, listen to them and give me advice.  I have been concerned that I was taking blood pressure medicine and I didn't need it.  He explained that the medication I was on is one that he normally recommends as the third medication when the first two don't work.  My readings have been really good (if you want to get off a medicine, come prepared with numbers) and he was saying that as you lose weight, your blood pressure just naturally drops.  Since I admitted that I tend to be really good about the medicine Monday - Friday and fail on the weekends, we agreed to see how things go all the time without the medicine.  I have to head to the store and pick up a real good blood pressure cuff but for now, I am off.  Since I had the one incident where I didn't feel well after not taking the medicine for a few days, I need to have a cuff on hand to monitor it.

I also asked about nutrition - especially considering I am planning to train for and complete my first full marathon in October.  He recommended I work with a sports nutritionist and even called me an endurance athlete.  Why does that always sound like music to my ears?  I am really excited to get an appointment scheduled with her and learn more about nutrition.  I'll definitely post more about it!

We went ahead and did a cholesterol screen and a few other tests.  What I liked about this new doctor?  Let's say this first:  he spent the time to talk to me instead of just sitting there, reading my chart, making a few notes and then the rest of the time buried in his computer filling out forms he had to complete.  He wanted to talk to me and not my paperwork.  He is accessible too - in fact said it was okay to email him and ask questions!  I thought of a few more I didn't cover relating to my racewalking.  We did discuss whether or not I could use a VO2 Max test and he was honest that he would only recommend it if I decided to take up running instead of walking.  I need to do more research on HR when you are walking.  The doctor was saying people who walk barely get out of zones 1 or 2 while they are walking.  I haven't been doing a good job of monitoring my heart rate while training because my Garmin was always giving me bad readings.  He suggested adjusting it, getting a new battery & trying again.  

I am so glad I finally listened to my friends and tried out this new doctor!  If you have been thinking about it, you should definitely look into it too.  It will be worth your time!