Friday, October 30, 2015

Know Your Numbers

Our health insurance insists that in order to "give" us money to use on healthcare next year, we take certain actions, tests, and checks...and be within healthy parameters (otherwise, no money without taking a class to correct whatever is wrong).


So I attended a biometric screening at work because it is WAY easier than taking a half day off just to get blood drawn.

This biometric screen was just a finger prick, plus BP, weight, and height.  Then they had counselors on site to walk you through your results and what they mean.  That part is awesome, much better than the call from your doctor that says "everything is fine".

My counselor was super nice.  She was also really surprised my numbers were so good since my BMI is so high.
I was happy to see my numbers continue to be in the normal ranges.  I eat relatively healthy-ish (just too much), I consume perfect nutrition with my shakes and food, I exercise some, I've been trying to lose weight. 

The only bad part about the biometric screening is they didn't do the detailed blood work that comes with the vials of blood, particularly TSH, T3, and T4.  My physical is coming up (again, on-site) and I'm going to ask for those to be taken.  I had to take Synthroid during the pregnancy because my TSH was not ok given the tightened parameters for pregnancy (but apparently is fine the other times? not buying it).

Because I'm a nerd, I've been tracking all of my stats in spreadsheet since 2010.  Some people may think that's overkill, but seriously folks - YOU ARE YOUR OWN HEALTH ADVOCATE!  I don't trust the system to spot a trend in one of my numbers, plus it's easy to plunk it into the sheet once a year.

Here's a snapshot of my results this year, straight from super fancy spreadsheet.  YAY ME! 


Test 2015 Low High
Cholesterol, total 153 125 200
HDL Cholesterol 73 > 46
Triglycerides 101 < 150
LDL Cholesterol 59 < 130

BP
97/86 < 120/80
Chol/HDLC ratio 2.1 < 5
Glucose 89 65 99

3 comments:

Hudson said...

Keep up the good work!! I agree with you about the TSH...just like I told you years ago, though I must say having a normal number did not make me loose weight, but it did greatly improve my mental health which after a year helped me get by brain in the right space to loose weight, so it works. Keep on doing a great job and being an inspiration to yourself, your family and random other people like me!!
Kari

Jessica Hartman said...

Kari, you are not random, friend! Thanks for being an inspiration. Your family is adorable.

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