Low carb menu, taking charge of my health

- Two sausage patties
- Two tuna patties with low carb ketchup and mayo
- Two more tuna patties with ketchup and mayo

Dermatology update: They took a mole off Friday and I'm waiting on the results. I went for YEARS with going to the doctor barely once a year, for my physical and such. This was mandatory to get the birth control that I was on. I was on an oral birth control (which started off to regulate my cycle) for over a decade, closer to fifteen years.

My chiropractor told me that birth control tricks the body into thinking it's already pregnant. I must admit, when I came off of it, I did notice a huge decrease in my appetite. I went off the pill (to the shot) and it was HORRIFIC at best. It was a big whirlwind inside Planned Parenthood. My blood pressure was at Stage III hypertension due to smoking and being morbidly obese, and they informed me that I should not be on the pill at all if I'm susceptible to migraines. The next thing I knew, the receptionist was giving me a shot in my arm almost without warning and I was handed a stack of stapled-papers on "the shot." I came home and read all kinds of horror stories about the Depo shot. After that, I was not in a relationship anyway and then now I'm with my girlfriend, so thankfully, birth control needs are not at the top of my list.

To get on with it, I'm taking better care of myself these days. I'm worth a trip to a pricey-specialist, even if we have to cut back on the expensive stuff for a while. So now, when I have a mole that I don't like the looks of or that looks like it's asymmetrical and evolving, I get that thing hacked off and biopsied! They said that due to my family history of skin cancer and the fact that I have lots of moles (aka beauty marks), I should get a once-over yearly anyway.

It seems that losing weight has all been under the greater umbrella of, "I'm demanding health because I deserve to be happy and healthy." I think it all comes down to loving myself enough to take good care of myself, which sounds so cheesy but it's true.

This has included finally seeking out a surgeon I can trust to fix my messed up knee, going to the dermatologist and on and on. Within the next month, I am going to schedule an appointment with a new doctor in the area for my yearly physical. I was not impressed with my last primary care physician at all and she did not seem to hear or understand my needs. That seemed good enough for me at the time because I do not think that I was even addressing my own health needs. When I went to her for pain management before my surgery, she ended the visit with asking me if I hurt my knee. I wanted to cry. DID I HURT MY KNEE? Ummm, I just told you that it has been the wrong angle since I was twelve years old due to a surgery-gone-wrong and now you are acting like I just fell off my bike or something?? I haven't been back to her since. Not only was there a language barrier between me and my then-doc, but she just didn't seem to care. Her mind seemed a million miles away most days.

Even though I visited the chiro earlier this month, I'm headed back today. The girlfriend gave me a really good massage last night, which made the foot of my bad knee tingle and pulsate. My surgeon speculated that the numbness in my foot was probably due to a mal-alignment of my spine, due to the fact that my left leg is a little shorter than my right foot. This theory is probably true because when she was giving me a massage, it was almost like the blood just started flowing properly down my leg into the foot! I have also noticed slight color difference in my legs, my surgical one being red and splotchy, which my doc assures me is "from the surgery."

I still can't believe that I am always in and out of the doc, but it feels good when I get a clean bill of health and it's nice to not dread it so much anymore. I really think that the part I hated the most was getting on the scale, which seems crazy now that I look back on it.

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was over twenty pounds overweight, which seemed to shock my mom.

"You are not overweight," she was horrified. I corrected her and told her that according to the charts, I am, in fact, overweight. I was wondering why she would even question this, but I was in a size women's medium sweater which fits very nicely. Maybe I don't look as big as I think I still do. I have heard of other bloggers saying the same thing about other people's comments shocking them.