Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Follow-up Visit

I saw Doctor Newton today as a follow-up from last week's episode. He expressed great pleasure over my recovery. He wants to run an NMR lipid profile which is a regular cholesterol test on steroids. Where a normal cholesterol test measures the volume of cholesterol, the NMR profile looks at the particle sizes of the cholesterol. There are 3 sizes and the test is able to enumerate the amount of each size particle a person has in their blood. Comparing the normal test to the NMR test, Dr Newton said it's like going from a 10 power microscope to a 1000 power microscope. I have to go to Labcorp and have my blood drawn, which is my least favorite thing in the world. But it's for a good reason so no complaining.

He asked me if I'm running and encouraged me to enter the Ukrops 10k. He asked when marathon training starts. I told him mid-July. He said he wants to run a Stress Cardiolite test on me before I start the training. This is a different type of stress test. It's administered mostly in the same fashion my other stress tests were administered. The difference is I will have an IV and they will pump me full of nuclear solution and take pictures with a different kind of camera. Dr. Newton said this test can pick up very tiny irregularities in my blood flow. Though he doesn't expect to find any problems, this test will give me the clearance to do the marathons I missed last season and so eagerly await.

The appointment ran long so I got to rehab with just enough time to run. I didn't go as fast or as far today, but I still had a good run. I only have 10 visits left. Then I'm on my own. I said in an older post I'll probably continue to go there 2 nights a week until the winter is over. By then, I should be back to 4:00 am runs.

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