Keeping Track

Today was a pretty exhausting day. I spent 11 hours at the hospital, getting oriented to my new rotation and taking care of pediatric patients in the afternoon. My clinical instructor loves maternity and labor & delivery, so she is very excited to show us the ropes and really wants to make sure we all have the chance to witness a birth. Sounds like it might be a serious learning experience.

Around lunchtime I received a voicemail from my doctor’s office and called back to get my results from my blood tests last week. My cholesterol is actually a bit higher than it was even 3 weeks ago, and given that my diet and exercise habits are already completely in line with all the lifestyle recommendations, my doctor seemed pretty concerned and wants me to start on medication immediately.

I’m so torn about it. I just don’t feel comfortable taking a pill that most likely I will need to take for the next 60 years. Those type of long-term effects studies just haven’t been done yet, given the relatively short length of time some of these medications have been on the market. At the same time, I understand that medical advances are the reason our lifespan has so drastically increased in the past century and I’m not going to refuse treatment that will help prevent heart disease down the line. Ugh. I guess I’m still in the “But I’m only 24!! This is not fair!” frame of mind.

I’ll stop throwing this little pity party, but I just wanted to give some background for why I’ll be keeping more careful track of my dietary intake and trying to track it on here. I just want to know I’m doing everything in my ability to control my cholesterol, and if I need medication too, so be it. I’m not sure how long I’ll really be doing this. I get bored and forgetful pretty easily, but I want to try it for a while. Given all of that, here’s what I ate today:

Breakfast, at 5am, was another egg sandwich, with a honey Oikos and coffee with skim milk and a bit of sugar.

On clinical days I have to eat breakfast by 5:30 and then do not have a chance to eat another snack or meal until around 12, so I tend to try to eat a super big breakfast that can hold me over.

Lunch at 11:30 was curried fried rice based on the recipe from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home. The only modification I made to the recipe was I threw in 1.5 cups of edamame to add protein and left out the spinach. I love this recipe. Along side, I had cucumber and carrots with a single serve of hummus and a cup of sliced strawberries.

The minute I got home from clinical at 5:30, I was Starving! Happens every time. I preheated the oven for dinner and made myself a snack of a banana-strawberry smoothie. Into the blender went skim milk, banana, a few frozen strawberries, and half a scoop of Jay Robb brown rice protein powder.

Dinner was ready at 7. It was another Jamaican Veggie Pot Pie from the freezer. I just love having the convenience of not cooking on clinical days. I can usually barely manage to change out of scrubs and make it to the couch. I hope I get more adjusted to these super long days!

I ate about 3/4 of my pot pie and Brent finished it for me. I retired to the couch to watch House and read some blogs. A few minutes ago, I just tried a new bar I found last week: the Fruition strawberry bar. I thought it was pretty good, but it costs me $2.50 so I don’t think I’ll be buying it regularly. It had chunks of real fruit in it, which I really liked though.

I’m just about ready to get to bed for the night! I’ll be back tomorrow. 🙂