20090106 - Health & Misc

My Health:
I saw my doctor this morning. He does not believe I experienced a stroke on Christmas. Because my symptoms were very fleeting he believes it is more likely I experienced something with my inner ear. (He had a name but I did not get it). HOWEVER, as a diabetic I am at high risk for a stroke and since a stroke could be devastating, we are going to do some further investigation.
1) A CT scan during an ischemic stroke does not show anything, so I am scheduling another CT scan about 2 weeks after Christmas. If there has been additional damage to the brain (from the strokes I experienced 15 years ago) it should show at that time.
2) Since I have some Carotid stenosis and my last Carotid Doppler was about a year ago, we will repeat that test.
3) He has referred me to a Vascular Surgeon and
4) I will be seeing him again in about 3 weeks.

The GV Area Health Care Discussion/Obama Transition Team:
The facilitator published the meeting notes to us that were sent on to the transition team. It was very exciting for me to see that our (and especially my) concerns were addressed in the document. In a couple of places even my words were used to describe the concern and where Rich expressed his annoyance (through me) at the number of choices in the Medicare System, it also made it into the paper. They sent 4 pages of single spaced typewritten health care stories and concerns to Obama’s people. There is a lot on his plate and we went significantly beyond what he says he will address at first but we will see what happens next. It was and is an exciting process for me.

My 2009 Resolutions
I am still working on resolutions for the new year. I don’t exactly do resolutions, but I do like to have some goals and objectives for the year. This year the one thing I am going to do is try to spread the objectives out throughout the year. I’ve seen a plan where each month you start a new habit. There are always so many things I want to change that it is overwhelming maybe this way I can accomplish more of what I want to do. What I need to do first is establish some real priorities. So far I say health is my #1 priority but that is not the way I behave. I need to understand why this is so, so I can change it.