A Day at the Doctor and Hiking Adventures

This week has been a busy week, but in a mostly good way. Yesterday we went on another hike. Once again at Mission Trails in San Antonio. We like to explore so we take different routes and different places the trails run off. Yesterday we bit off a bit more than we could chew.

It was a nice enough trail, except it was almost all uphill. That added a whole new level of difficulty to the thing. I was wearing my new hiking boots so I was excited, but that didn't help my legs or my lungs. I did at least have a camelbak back pack, well its called a Rhino back pack, but has a 3 liter water bladder and I took a protein bar and some trail mix with us. I didn't need the food, but did drink a lot of water.

I also added some polarized clip on sunglasses since my transition lenses don't get real dark. I burn easy and have blue eyes so I don't want to roast or go blind out in the bright sun and heat.

We did see some cool birds, mostly these huge black things

This is called a Great cormorant and I guess they dive under water for over a minute for fish. There was one diving and splashing around as we walked by. They were pretty huge too and there were several of them. Oddly they are pretty common so I read, but this is my first time in all my years in Texas seeing one or any.

So that was cool. We made it through the walk ok, one mile total, but with so much being uphill I feel like we should get credit for further distance.

Today I went to the doctor to see my Nurse Practitioner. I've been on Wegovy about a year and lost 50 pounds so far, but kind of stagnated, though I lost 2 pounds since last month, I'm still just over 300. I'm hoping hiking changes that.

So a couple things happened today. I lowered the Wegovy by a bit because its gotten so expensive at this point to maintain the higher dosage. I also sometimes have blurry vision at night which could be due to a few things. She wanted to rule out my blood sugar, which was normal last time we checked, but has been high in the past before the weight loss. So she gave me this deal on my arm called a Freestyle Libre which connects to an app and monitors my blood sugar levels and alerts me if it gets too high or too low. Pretty neat little deal if you ask me.

I noticed this evening it dropped really low when I dozed off then leveled off after dinner. So its cool to see how I'm doing. We also added me on Strattera which is an ADHD medication. Since I found out I'm on the autism spectrum, that may explain why with my paying work, the legal documents job I have such a hard time focusing and sometimes keeping up with the work load which isn't much to begin with.

I write 3-5 documents a day, but some days I can't even do that much because I can't focus. So we are starting me on that to see if it helps zero my brain in. It also does cause weight loss, so I may lose even more weight as we go. But I'm looking forward to maybe not being so groggy and flighty all the time. I sleep a lot during the day which I also hate, but lately hasn't been quite as bad. Hopefully this new medication will help that.

So that was my day. Lots of driving around and sitting at appointments, but I feel like it was productive and hopefully I'll feel better and be more productive and healthier going forward. I'm 51 now so I can't take my health as a joke. My older brother died in his sleep at age 50. I know he didn't take very good care of himself and I think that and over work is what caused his early passing. I hope to be around for a long time, so I want to take care of myself and also enjoy life more than just sitting on the couch like I've done for years.

Losing the weight that I have, I already feel like a completely different person. A few months ago I never thought I'd be hiking at all, let alone a mile or more. Tomorrow we hope to hike again, so we'll see what that adventure brings. And each hike feels like a new adventure, its quite exciting for me. Having been penned up in the house since before covid, I feel like I'm having a new awakening.

We also go to Taylor Swift dance parties or go watch roller derby matches. It'll be nice being able to go and having some cardio to stay through the whole thing and actually enjoy it without gassing out early. Its a time of new beginnings and a time I'm excited for. Initially I was dreading my 50s, but now I'm kind of excited for what this decade holds for me.

So that sums up this week so far. We'll see what happens from here. Tomorrow I don't have any work so I hope we can do another hike and explore some new areas and maybe see some cool wildlife we haven't seen yet. In the meantime, thank you all for stopping by and reading my little blog. I appreciate all of you. Until next time!