Day + 118, The Lipid Nurse

This is the 'sweet spot' of fall -- where all the trees are showing their seasonal colors. It's been windy for the last few days, so many trees are already past their prime, and have moved to the "dump three feet of snow on my naked branches and disfigure me permanently" phase. I've got a box of scarves, gloves and other winter paraphernalia in the back of my car that I'm sure I'll be needing to take out soon.

Last night, I received a call from a woman over at Boston Medical. It was the lipid nurse. She deals with -- you guessed it -- referrals from doctors at the clinic to patients who are having lipid problems. When she told me that she was confident that she could take care of my astronomically-high tryclyeride levels, I listened with eager ears.

She told me that two interesting things: first, that my tryclyeride and cholesterol lab results may not have been taken correctly, and second, that the medicine that I was taking, Vytorin, might not be the best medicine for reducing these values.

Supposedly, when you have a triclyeride count over 400, standard tests can be thrown off due to the high lipidity. (Lipidity, is that a word?) As a result, there is a more thorough panel of tests that can be administered to get a more accurate reading. She believes both of these numbers are skewed way too high, and this new test will give a more accurate reading, as well as give me my LDL (bad cholesterol) levels.

So, another trip to the hospital for some bloodwork on Monday, which happens to be my birthday... again.