Category: Health

Another scariest day of my life

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I wrote a health blog post in October 2021 called the scariest day of my life. That day I woke up and went to the bathroom, as you do, but I was having issues urinating. I stood up and looked in the toilet and it was nothing but blood. I went to the ER and they did a CT scan and told me it’s possible I have bladder cancer. They didn’t know why I was urinating blood. I was told to see my regular doctor and a urologist. My doctor gave the referral and I saw a urologist who said I had an enlarged prostate. He gave me Flomax and suddenly I was able to urinate easier, and he ran a camera into my bladder and I could see the inside of my bladder and it didn’t look like there were any issues. They didn’t know why that happened to me.

This week on Wednesday June 18th, 2025 I woke up and everything was normal, but then later in the afternoon I went to the bathroom and I was standing up, but I wasn’t looking in the toilet. I went to flush and saw all of the water was red. I tried going again later, but it was difficult to get anything out, but there was some blood dripping out. The doctor called and told me it sounds like I’m passing a kidney stone. They told me I had stones at one point, so I guess they assumed that’s what was happening. She told me to go to the emergency room immediately, and so I did.

We went to the emergency room at around 6:30pm and they asked for a urine sample. I went to the bathroom and it was a struggle, but I managed to fill the cup with blood. It was so dark that it looked more like a paint sample.

They brought me to a room to find out why I was there, then they did a CT scan, and then they took blood and after several hours they brought me back there to the desk where they look at your insurance information and wait for the doctor. There weren’t any beds, so I saw the doctor while sitting in the chair and he told me there were blood clots in my bladder, so no stones. I told him I couldn’t urinate easily, because pissing out blood clots hurts like hell, so he said we can irrigate your bladder, and so they did that.

Finally around 11:30pm they brought me to one of the beds and told me to remove all of my clothes and put the gown on and they set me up on the bed to get ready for hell lol. It was not pleasant at all. They had to insert a catheter and oh my freaking God, that was so painful. At first he started putting it in, but then took it out because he said it was too big, so then he put a smaller one in there. Holy fucking Shit! That fucking hurt going in, but once it was in, I was fine. They had 2 huge bags of what I can only assume was gallons of saline water. It wasn’t the normal IV bag you see, these bags were huge. You see the tube of saline going in and then there was another tube with blood going out. That took about 2 hours. Then he took the catheter out and it still hurt for several minutes after he pulled it out.

I was told I had a UTI and that could be the cause. I was told the last time I had a UTI before I urinated blood, but not much was done for me, and then I urinated blood, but this time they gave me an IV with an antibiotic and they prescribed an antibiotic to take twice a day for 7 days.

Ok, so I came home and had the urge to urinate, and not thinking anything would happen, I stood in front of the toilet and let the gates open, and I screamed bloody murder because it felt like my dick was on fire. 3 or 4 blood clots immediately shot out like a rocket and some blood and urine came out and I clenched so fast to stop the flow and that hurt too, but even more.

The guy who inserted the catheter told me I will be in pain for the next 4 days, but I didn’t understand until I came home and went to urinate like nothing had just happened. The next day was hell every time I had to urinate, then the next day, and today is day 3 and it still stings a little, but it is getting easier. I didn’t realize this would be the result of having a catheter. Even though I hate that I’m going through this now, I don’t regret having them irrigate my bladder because I would’ve had to suffer from pushing out all of the blood clots on my own at home like the last time.

I am seeing my doctor on Monday morning and then she’ll put in a referral for the urologist and they’ll probably go in with a camera again like the last time to see what is going on. Was it just a result of a UTI that I had no idea I had, or is it something worse? I was told by the nurse who inserted the catheter that this is typically happening because a patient has bladder cancer, so even though I don’t want to accept that it might be cancer, I’m not ruling anything out. I won’t have a choice but to accept whatever the outcome is when they examine my bladder.

This whole thing really sucks. I don’t know why this is happening. I just turned 55 years old. This getting old bullshit is pissing me off lol. I don’t want to do it anymore. Is there a way I can go backward?

Update: I saw my doctor and she gave me a referral for the urologist who is so busy that I have to wait 4 weeks to see them. My doctor told me that she isn’t convinced I have a UTI. I actually took all of the antibiotics that they gave me and a few days after I finished it all started again. I was urinating blood for another 24 hours. I told my doctor and she said I think you are passing kidney stones. I’m better now, and she told me she tried to reroute my referral to expedite the appointment and the referral department told me to call the urologist and they told me no, they can’t expedite or reroute my appointment. My appointment is still the same and I just have to wait and there’s just no getting around it. So I guess we will see what happens in August.

Oh, yeah, the tics discussion again

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

In my previous blog post, I talked about my tics. To be frank, I think people thought I was tweaking, like I was on drugs, because if I saw someone walking around constantly moving their head the way I was, I would definitely say that guy is on something. And I did see many people look at me like they might call the security guard until they realize I’m actually somewhat normal, just someone with tics.

In my previous post I said Music calms the tics. I started listening to music and sitting still like I was meditating. I closed my eyes and relaxed and just listened to the music. Well, it did a lot of calming and I did manage to calm that particular troublesome tic by a lot, however, it wasn’t completely gone. When I caught myself, I would straighten my head out and just say stop, sometimes out loud.

Enchanted Cottage here in Bakersfield had a craft faire on March 22nd, and I NEEDED to get rid of that tic because the last thing I needed was to be sitting at my booth looking like an absolute tweaker. So I worked hard on stopping. The day of the craft faire, I believe it slipped out a few times, but I sat at my table, and I was so distracted by all the people who were there either as vendors or customers that I hardly even noticed if I even did it. I mean, I usually always know that I’m doing it when I’m doing it, and I was able to stop myself before it got bad, and I’d make it look like I was cracking my neck or something lol.

So here I am sitting at my booth with all my buttons in bowls and button box sets in the wooden displays and bracelets in the middle. I even had my keychains on the table in the very front on both sides. I also had all my box cards in a box under the table because there wasn’t really any room for them. I did mention them to people. I let them see the pictures in my catalog and I even brought out a couple to show how they look. People really liked my booth and I had a really good time.

Ok so getting back to the tics lol. If you have tics, you know they either evolve, or they change to something else, and if you see sometime else with tics, you’ll probably adopt their tic. Well, they changed to eye blinking, but also the neck thing occasionally. It’s back and forth. I’ve had this issue all my life and I’m about to turn 55 and I just don’t see them going away any time soon, beyond a miracle. I just have to deal with it and people have to deal with the fact that some people have Tourette syndrome in many different forms, and there’s nothing they or anyone else can do to change it.

I’ve been listening to the music I listened to as a teenager. Recently I’ve been listening to the Chicago 17 album on Google music, which I haven’t listened to since the 80’s, and shockingly, I remember all the lyrics, even the ones I thought were something else lol. After that album ends, a playlist will start with all of the hits from the 80’s in the same genre, which is cool because it really brings me back in time. That music seems to calm me down a bit more than anything recent, probably because it’s mostly ballads.

Ok, so I just wanted to give an update on my progress. It isn’t going to go away, like ever, but I’ll always hope it’s something not too noticeable to make me look too strange.

Let’s try this weight loss again

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I quit smoking in 1996 because I was trying to be healthy, and I was just getting tired of smoking. I discovered food tasted so much better and I traded one bad habit for another and literally gained 50lbs in the first 2 months, which is the reason so many people won’t quit smoking. Gradually over time the weight went up, and now I am more than 100lbs overweight.

I have tried losing weight in the past and I have logged it here in my blog. I did the Noom app and ate Weight Watchers Smart Ones and one year I lost 70 lb in 6 months. That didn’t last and the weight went up eventually and I gained it all back and then some. I think the problem then was I had lost my motivation because I stopped losing weight and it didn’t seem to want to drop anymore. I just went back to regular eating and eventually overeating again.

In late April we went to the clinic and met our new doctor. She saw from my medical history that my blood sugar has been high and I showed her the “True Manager Air” log for my True Metrix blood sugar gadget and the highs were pretty much 180 to 200 daily. I take a medication called Trijardy for blood sugar because at one point it was in the 500’s. The Trijardy has helped bring it down, but it was still too high. She suggested trying something new.

She told me about a medicine that I can inject into my stomach that will trick my brain into thinking I’m not hungry which will make me eat less and some foods might make me physically sick or give me nausea. I said sure, sounds great. It took a while getting it because the insurance wouldn’t pay for Monjaro, so she changed it to Ozempic.

We went back to the doctor for my follow up appointment which was supposed to be after taking it for a month, but because it was difficult to get the medicine, the follow up was after 3 weeks instead.

Y’all! I cannot even begin to tell you how happy and excited this doctor was for me that I had lost 14lbs after just 3 weeks. She was more excited for me than I was. I really love her. I hope she will be my doctor for a long time. I hate that this clinic goes through doctors like TicTacs.

So she had me on .25 mg to start me out and after she saw I had lost weight, she changed the dose to .5mg. I am wondering if I have not gotten a lot of the side effects on the .25 mg that I might get the side effects from the .5 mg, maybe even more so. Not looking forward to that.

She told me the side effects could be nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation and I forget what else. I can handle constipation and diarrhea because I’ve been dealing with that for a long time anyway. I hate vomiting, but I won’t vomit if I don’t overeat. I don’t mind the nausea because the nausea will tell me hey, maybe don’t eat that. We were actually walking through the grocery store in the bakery department, and something, I don’t know what it was, made me feel so sick to my stomach and I almost retched right there in the store. I couldn’t get away fast enough from that smell. I hope it wasn’t something that I loved.

So, in the past 3 weeks that I’ve been on this Ozempic, I have actually not been very hungry. I’m only eating lunch and dinner because I know I have to eat. So it really does trick my brain into thinking that I’m not hungry. Today we decided to go to Taco Bell and one taco literally filled my stomach. I couldn’t eat another bite after that. Which is great because it was only 170 calories.

I’m eating the Weight Watchers Smart Ones frozen dinners again and I’m snacking on low-fat string cheese and I told the doctor that and she said that’s great. Keep doing that if that’s what works for you. We also buy bags of frozen vegetables from Aldi. They don’t have a lot of calories and they will fill me up and the fiber from the vegetables is probably going to help me with the constipation issues lol. At least I think that’s how vegetables work. I’m not sure.

So the doctor told me that some people have lost over 100lbs taking this medicine and that’s great because I am 100 lb overweight. I was 115 lbs overweight, but now I’m only 100 lb overweight. I don’t expect to get back down to 150 which is what I used to weigh because I have built muscle over the years since I used to weigh 150 lb, but I would like to get back down to at least 160lbs if that’s even possible.

I just can’t stand this weight anymore. It’s like carrying around a child and I don’t even have children. Not being hungry all the time will definitely help me lose weight. The method for which getting this medicine into my body is injecting it into my stomach once a week. The needle is so tiny it doesn’t even hurt, I don’t even feel it. I have to press it into my stomach while pinching my skin (and fat lol) and press the button on the pen to make the medicine go into my stomach, and then I have to wait I think she told me 10 seconds, but I can’t remember so I hold it in for 30 seconds just in case. They said to hold it in for a little bit longer just to make sure that all of the medicine gets inside my body.

Suddenly I finally have motivation to lose weight and continue trying to lose weight until it’s all gone because I have something that will make me not feel hungry all the time. And that’s my problem. I’m hungry literally all the time. We will go to a restaurant and I will come home stuffed and literally an hour later I’m hungry again. I don’t like being hungry all the time. My stomach must have expanded so much that it needs more and more food. By not eating so much food all the time, my stomach will shrink down and I will get full faster by eating normal portions. Once that happens and I’ve lost enough weight, then I will be able to continue living my life and eating like a normal person and be full a lot faster than I do now.

So, I was 265 lbs in April when she first weighed me and as of this writing I weigh 248 lbs. I would like to get down to 160 lbs at least. My blood sugar like I said before was between 180 and 200 and today it was 105. Normal is between 80 and 120.

So my weight loss story will continue and I will update my progress.

Update 7/27/2023: I’ve lost 50lbs total. I’m working on a video and have updated the video.

Update 8/11/2023: I’ve lost 60lbs total.

Parotid Problems Part 2

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

I’ve had issues with my saliva glands, also known as the parotid glands. In 2013 I had to have the right parotid gland removed because there was a stone in there that was blocking the path for my saliva to enter into my mouth, so the gland was filling up with saliva, which caused it to swell up, which is very painful. Over the years my left parotid gland has gotten bigger, and had occasionally caused issues, but never this bad.

We went to the emergency room yesterday to get some antibiotics, because you can’t just go to the pharmacy for antibiotics. You need a prescription. So they told me to also follow up with my doctor so I can get the referral to a surgeon who will order all the tests so they can determine if I should have surgery and I’ll have to wait for approval from my medical insurance company. This could literally take several months. Several months that I’ll be in so much agony every day when I eat.

Eating is what causes this. So far I’ve discovered sweet and salty foods are causing my problems the most because sweet and salty foods cause you to generate saliva. Also chewing itself causes it to swell up. I googled what I can eat that doesn’t generate saliva and it said breads, fiber and oats. I had some toast and just chewing the toast caused it to swell up. So I had some malt-o-meal, which is not sweet and I don’t have to chew it, just swallow it. We have oatmeal, but it’s maple and brown sugar and I was afraid the sweet flavor works cause problems.

I have a heating pad that I place on my face to bring the swelling down. That worked great yesterday, but it’s not helping that much today. The swelling is so bad that I can’t touch my teeth when I bite down.

Here is a picture from when my right parotid gland was swollen from this same issue.

Here is a picture from after I had the surgery.

So yeah. I’ll go through that again. At least I hope so. I hate the thought of going through this again, but I’m literally going through the pain that led me to having this surgery again. So even though it’s not pleasant to look at, it’s necessary so I don’t have this horrible pain.

And don’t worry. I’ll still have glands under my tongue to produce saliva.

Scariest day of my life

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health2 Comments

Yesterday, October 19th, 2021, was the scariest day of my entire life.

I woke up and went to the bathroom, just like any other day. The only difference is I was having trouble urinating. It was like there was a plug in my urethra preventing the urine from coming out. Except, something was coming out. I stood up and looked in the toilet and there was a long dark, almost black stream going down the inside of the toilet. I turned the light on and I could tell it was blood. I continued urinating standing up and blood just poured out into the toilet.

I went to the living room to tell my life partner that something was seriously wrong. He went into a full on panic because this isn’t something that happens every day. I was in a state of shock, and I was more trying to calm him down rather than worry about the blood in the toilet.

We drove to the doctor’s office to see if they could see us even though today is actually when we have an appointment. They couldn’t see us, so we went home and figured we would just go to our appointment.

I had more urges to urinate, and it was painful. I went to the bathroom and continued urinating blood. Suddenly it started sputtering, and I saw several blood clots, but I continued urinating blood.

We decided to go to the emergency room. They did a CT scan and couldn’t find any reason for why I’m urinating blood. No kidney stones, no infection, no obvious visible reason. The doctor told me that it’s possible I might have bladder cancer, but I would have to go see a urologist so they could run a camera through my urethra to my bladder to look to find the issue.

Last night just before bed I urinated one last time and sudden sputtering again, several blood clots, then regular urine with no pain. This morning I woke up at 5 am to urinate and it was fine. I went back to bed and woke up at around 8:30am and went to the bathroom and everything seems to be back to normal.

This is the scariest thing that has ever happened to me in my life, and I’m 51 years old. I’ve been through a lot of drama and trauma, but this one thing that happened to me yesterday was the worst thing to ever happen.

I don’t drink soda, or alcohol. I drink coffee in the morning and then I drink water the rest of the day. That’s all I drink. So I don’t understand why this happened. Now I can’t even drink coffee because the paperwork from the hospital said no caffeine for awhile.

We go to the doctor today and I’ll show him the pictures of the blood in the toilet on my phone and give him the papers and the CD from the CT scan from the hospital and I’ll have him refer me to a urologist and get that taken care of as soon as possible. That’s not something I want to mess around with. I’ll update this blog when I get new information.

Thank you for reading.

Update October 24, 2021: I woke up this morning, went to the bathroom and it wasn’t painful, but there was blood. I went 4 days with regular normal urine, then it was back, but it was only that one time. I’ve urinated several times since then, but I just wanted to update this to say it happened again this morning. Tomorrow I’m calling the urologist to find out if they got my referral yet and if so, could we make an appointment for as soon as possible. I don’t want to wait too long to fix this issue.

Update November 1st, 2021: I saw the nurse practitioner at the urologist today. He said the CT scan shows I have an enlarged prostate, which the ER doctor apparently didn’t tell me about. I’m now taking Flomax. Not looking forward to those side effects. Anyway, they’ll run the camera to my bladder in december.

Update December 15, 2021: I went to the urologist today and they put the camera into my urethra to my bladder and there wasn’t anything wrong with my bladder. I was able to crane my head so I could look at the TV monitor and he showed me a big lump that was inside my bladder, but he said that that was my prostate pushing on my bladder. Other than that there is really nothing inside my bladder that would give anybody any worry to believe that there is anything wrong with me. As he pulled the camera out, you could see that the urethra was getting smaller because my prostate was pushing on my urethra. So no cancer. No problem.

Smaller Appetite After Surgery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, keto, WeightLeave a comment

I have always had a huge appetite since I was at least a teenager. At dinner, my mom would always make enough so everyone could have seconds, and I was typically the only one who would actually take seconds. I was so skinny and my mom never understood where that food went because I never gained any weight no matter how much food I ate. I kind of hate my younger self right now lol. I was also active, and when I say active, I mean like gym class, running from the school to escape bullies, then walking home from school. You know, typical teenage angst lol.

So the time of my life I’m referring to was when I was around 13 years old and I was 150lbs. Fast forward to when I was 26 and I was still 150lbs, then I quit smoking and that all changed. Suddenly I was gaining weight because I was discovering how wonderful food was. Before then I was eating to survive on what we could afford. After, I was eating for pleasure, and I wasn’t holding back. I was getting a lot more food than normal and within 2 months of quitting smoking, I had gained 50lbs. So there I was 200lbs with a fat belly all of a sudden and my appetite was out of control, but I was trying not to go over 200lbs.

Over the years I’ve gained weight because of my enormous appetite until I was at my highest last year at 267lbs. I bought a Fitbit Charge 4 watch and a Fitbit Aria scale and I tried working on my weight. When I got the scale I was 265lbs and by January this year I was 254lbs, then the surgeon told me to lose 15-20lbs for my surgery and then I went down to 230lbs. Now after surgery I have gone down to 225lbs.

And now to the subject of this post. I had my surgery where they reduced the size of my colon, which is a nicer way of saying they removed a section of my colon to remove the possibility of colon cancer. But ever since I had my surgery, I haven’t been very hungry. They fed me 6oz of soup and some other things like pudding or jello and some juices and milk. Well, that tiny amount of food and drinks made me feel so full. When I came home from the hospital I was still getting full from such a tiny amount of food. I left the hospital on Thursday and today is Sunday and I’m still getting full from 6oz of soup. I made myself tomato soup, a 3oz glass of sugar free Jell-O and a chocolate pudding cup and I couldn’t even eat the Jell-O or the pudding. It was literally too much food.

This will be to my advantage to help me reduce the size of my stomach. If I eat and I get full fast, then I won’t have the chance to make my stomach too big again, and that will help me lose weight, especially when I go back to eating my Keto food. This will also prevent me from even wanting to go to a buffet because if I’m not hungry for such a huge amount of food, then I won’t be tempted to go, thus I won’t overeat and gain weight again. So I see this as a huge win for me.

How long do you think it will take me to get down to 200lbs if I am 225lbs now? I pretty much lost 22lbs from mid-January to the end of March. So do you think I will be down to 200lbs by June or July maybe? And if I get down to 200lbs by then, I will just keep going and lose all the weight I can possibly lose. I really would like to get back to 150lbs, but I will be happy if I can get down to 160 or 170. When I finally get down to the weight I want to be, I’m going to continue to maintain my weight by eating Keto foods, and if I still lose weight, well then good for me.

I’m home from the hospital

On By Michel McDonaldIn HealthLeave a comment

Well, I did it and I survived a week in the hospital lol.

On Saturday, March 27 I started a liquid diet to help empty my bowels for surgery. I had to drink broth for 2 days. Monday, March 29 was my surgery. This is a video on YouTube that shows what they did.

I wasn’t given any food after the surgery. The next day I had a liquid diet, and all my meals made me full.

These were pretty much what I was eating. Cream soups that were less creamy and more watery. My meals were a soup, pudding or Jell-O or ice lemon, milk or almond milk, hot tea or hot coffee, and a juice like cranberry or grape. Oh and breakfast was cream of wheat with no butter or sweetener.

I’m not in any pain. I have to walk around to keep my stomach from turning into velcro. The physical therapist used that word to describe what your insides will do that kind of made me laugh and it also made sense.

I had to lose weight for the surgery and the surgeon said that when he asks his patients to lose weight for surgery, they almost always never lose weight. He was so surprised and happy that I actually lost weight. I went from 254 on January 12 when I first saw him, and I was 230 the day of surgery. I lost 5 more pounds after a week of hospital food. Here’s my weight now.

I am really proud of myself for having the will power to meet this goal and continue losing weight, and I will keep losing more weight so I can lose all the stomach fat. Of course I’ll probably need to maintain a small layer of stomach fat for insulation lol, but there is no reason to stay fat and because it was unhealthy for me.

I have a post opp appointment in 11 days and I’m sure he will reveal my stitches. Everything is bandaged. I can’t take a shower until the bandages are gone. I bought some no rise shampoo/body wash from Amazon to keep me clean. It’s a spray which will make it easier to use.

As I keep saying, just to be clear, I do not have colon cancer and after the surgery, the surgeon told me he found no evidence of cancer. He removed the section of my colon because of colon polyps that they couldn’t remove any other way.

I really appreciate all the likes on my posts about my weight loss progress over the last few months. Thank you for reading.

My weight loss update

On By Michel McDonaldIn Diet, Health, ketoLeave a comment

I started my Atkins Keto diet on January 12, 2021 at 253lbs per my surgeons request. On February 17, 2021 I had lost 11.6lbs, but then the weight stopped dropping and I had gained a few pounds and I got extremely frustrated.

I wasn’t sure what I was doing wrong. I was always hungry, so I figured I needed a supplement, so I went on YouTube to find out what works, and someone said Apple Cider Vinegar, so I went on Amazon and found something in pill form called Apple Cider Vinegar+KETO in a bottle with 120 capsules. Instructions were to take 2 pills in the morning with food. I did that and the first couple of days it helped me to suppress my appetite, but then it stopped suppressing my appetite and I was always hungry again. So then I bought a bottle of Metamucil with Psyllium Husk Powder and the instructions were to take 2 rounded teaspoons with 8oz glass of water before every meal, and that actually helped to suppress my appetite. I took it for 3 days in a row and started feeling horrible stomach cramps, but I took it for a 4th day and I regretted taking it. I looked on Google for how long you should take Metamucil and it said maximum of 7 days. Well, 4 days was too many for me. Perhaps 7 days if you only take 1 rounded teaspoon before meals.

Yesterday and today I didn’t take anything. No apple cider vinegar, no metamucil and I seem to be doing fine with my appetite. My stomach is still cramping up a lot, but that’s going away. I don’t feel hungry between meals and that’s pretty much the whole point of me doing that, to help shrink my stomach and to help shrink my appetite. I weighed myself this morning and I was 239.4lbs.

My goal is to lose 15-20lbs for surgery, and my appointment with the surgeon is on March 11, 2021 to check my weight to see if I have lost anything to be eligible for surgery, which is in exactly 1 week from today. I am hoping to get down to 233 by then, but I will be happy if I’ve only lost 15lbs. Then of course there will be from the day of my appointment next week until the day of the surgery, and I may possibly have gone down to 233 or lower.

I have to lose weight for surgery, but I want to lose weight for my health sake. I have sleep apnea and I have bad knees, and I’m guessing is due to the fact that I am, or was 100lbs overweight. I’m still at least 90lbs overweight. I was 150 before I quit smoking and gained all this weight, and I don’t expect to go back down to 150lbs, but I’d at least like to get down to 170 again. I know I can do it if I try hard enough, but that all depends on my appetite. I’ve always had a huge appetite since I was a kid when I was skinny and couldn’t gain any weight even if I tried because I was very active.

Of course I will keep this blog updated when I go to the appointment next week and when I have the surgery, and when I lose more weight beyond the surgery.

Oh and just to make it clear, the surgery isn’t for weight loss as someone thought on Facebook. The surgery is to remove some colon polyps that they couldn’t remove during my colonoscopy in September of 2020. I need these extra polyps removed before they turn to cancer. Even if it was for weight loss, I’m sure I do not qualify for weight loss surgery because I am not an extreme case like you see on tv.

CPAP filters on Amazon

On By Michel McDonaldIn Health, UncategorizedLeave a comment

I got my CPAP machine from Apria Healthcare in 2019. They were sending me these filters that didn’t look like they were collecting any dust at all. When I removed the filter after two weeks it looked almost identical to the way it looked when I put it in.

I was having such a difficult time getting them to send me new supplies because they were telling me that they didn’t have the paperwork needed from my doctor. I got tired of waiting and using the same filter for almost a year because they weren’t sending me any supplies, so I went to Amazon and bought these new filters from RespLabs. I only paid $10 and it comes with 60 filters which will take me two and a half years to go through since they want me to change the filters once every two weeks.

You can see a used filter on the left side that came from Apria Healthcare, on the right side on the top is a brand new RespLabs filter and below that is after 2 weeks of using this new filter. You can tell there’s a significant difference in the amount of dust that these filters are collecting that is not going into your lungs. The filters that Apria Healthcare were sending me were just not working. Every night I could smell dust and dirt the whole night long. I don’t smell any dirt or dust with these new filters.

So if you have sleep apnea, do yourself a favor and buy these RespLab filters. Your lungs will thank you.

By the way, this filter belongs to the ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet, so if that’s what you have, then this filter is for you. If you have another CPAP or BiPap machine, I’m sure they have a filter for your make and model.

So I’m diabetic now

On By Michel McDonaldIn Doctor, HealthLeave a comment

I think it was 10 years ago when my doctor warned that I was pre-diabetic, and he gave me a glucose meter and my numbers went down because I basically cut out all the sweets and only ate vegetables and meat, no bread or carbs. Eventually after a few months of having good numbers on the meter, he told me I’m cleared and I don’t need to worry about it anymore as long as I continued to eat healthy. He didn’t prescribe test strips.

They tested my glucose in June of this year and it was 373. Yikes! My doctor prescribed Metformin HCL ER 750 MG tablets and I have taken it every day like I was supposed to for 3 months. I’ve cut back significantly on sugar and have eaten basically nothing but salads for dinner for 3 months. They tested my glucose again in September and it had dropped down to 228, still yikes. But the day of our appointment which was a week later, it had gone back up to 391. YIKES!!!! She thought the Metformin would help, but apparently not, so she prescribed Trijardy XR 25-5-1000 MG tablets.

Today I finally got the new medicine and the new glucose machine. It’s a True Metrix self monitoring blood glucose meter and it only came with 10 testing strips and 10 lancests, and I don’t know why they didn’t give me any more than that, but whatever. My life partner has the same machine and he buys testing strips from Amazon, so he gave me some of his for when I run out of mine in 3 days lol.

I tested my blood when we came home from the pharmacy, which was a little after 3pm and my blood sugar was 242. I took a Trijardy. Then I ate dinner at 6pm and did the test about 10 minutes later and it had dropped down to 147. So apparently the new medicine is going to help. I wonder what the side effects will be lol. Joking aside, I’m glad my blood sugar has gone down significantly.

Now that I know I have an issue with my blood sugar, I will slow my roll on junk food and try to eat healthier from now on. It’s hard because I REALLY love junk lol. I am a 50 year old man, I need to grow up and stop acting like a child who thinks he can eat anything he wants. I don’t have a grown up to tell me to eat my vegetables and that cookies and ice cream will spoil my dinner.

Actually, my life partner has told me you’ll spoil your lunch or dinner and I laugh because whenever I do eat lunch or dinner, it’s never enough and I’m still hungry. Perhaps if I filled my stomach with vegetables, which from what I understand breaks down slower in your stomach, which makes you feel full longer, then I might not be so hungry all the time.

I downloaded the True Metrix app called True Manager. I don’t have the True Metrix Air which apparently connects to the app with Bluetooth, but I can manually enter the data. I hope my blood sugar drops down to a normal range and stays that way. I will know on the app since it has a log and it tells me my average based on my log entries. They told me to do the blood test in the morning on an empty stomach, and then again after dinner.