Well, it seems the water I was retaining has left me now, as my weight has dropped by 4 lbs to 165 lbs. I'm sure it's water weight loss, as my body fat percentage continues to remain stable at 12.7%. This puts my BMI (Body Mass Index) back to 22.4, which is solidly in the middle of the "normal weight" range. I suppose the warmer weather (highs in the upper 90s to low 100s) might have something to do with this shift. Ever since the temperature and humidity began to move toward a typical summer pattern, I've been experiencing ups and downs in weight that can't be explained by either body fat gain/loss or muscle gain/loss.
As for my blood sugar, it is remaining normal, at 96 ml/dcl today.
Where my blood pressure is concerned, it was at 120/79 when I measured it after 11:00am this morning. The slight rise may be due to not getting as much exercise (due to the hotter weather), particularly walking, which normally tends to moderate my blood pressure.
Meanwhile, when I refilled my blood pressure medication, the other day, the pharmacist told me my doctor said I need to make an appointment for lab work, etc. He does this every now and then, extorting me into visiting in order to continue getting refills for my prescription. Then he doles them out to me at 2 or 3 refills at a time, whereas, I know of other physicians who give a patient a year's worth of refills at a time without requiring any additional attention by the doctor.
As I've said of my doctor before, he's a shill for Big Pharma. His only course of action in "treating" any ailment - no matter what it may be - is to prescribe drugs for it. He never tells me of anything I might do to prevent a condition from arising, or of anything natural (such as dietary changes) that I might do to cure a condition - because he has no interest in curing disease. That wouldn't help him pay off the mortgage on his half-million dollar home.
So, I'm at the point at which I'm tempted to ignore him altogether and just stop taking my blood pressure medicine - which I'm not even sure isn't actually prolonging my "dependency" upon it. My only concern, and the one that has made me reluctant to give it a shot, is that my sleep apnea tends to raise my blood pressure during sleep and, as I have no concious control over this (since I'm not awake to do anything about it), I'm at the mercy of whatever might happen. In other words, I'm concerned my blood pressure could skyrocket during an apnic event and I might suffer a stroke or heart attack in my sleep. That is the only reason I haven't been brave enough - yet - to discontinue my medication. Also, I really need to discontinue it over a period of days, if not weeks, to get an acurate assessment of how my body will respond to the lack of the Lisinopril. At some point, though, I'll have to take that chance if I'm ever going to find out whether or not I really need this crap anymore - or if it is, as I suspect, actually keeping me from making any further progress. Since I don't feel like having my crappy insurance provider reject another claim and leave me stuck with yet another $350 lab bill to pay (especially when I know the results will be normal), I'm thinking this might be the time to take the plunge and dispense with the Lisinopril - at least for a few days, anyway, until I see what effect it has. I guess if you don't see a new blog entry next Saturday, you'll know it didn't work out.
