More on the 27-pound weight loss…

Friday, February 4.  The day before I’m supposed to compete in Trivia Bowl 7, I’ve scheduled a doctor’s appointment to try to determine how I lost 27 pounds in what amounts to a month and a half.  Because my health insurance changed over from one provider to another, I’m meeting with a new doctor.  This is probably good for me, the doctor can get a fresh opinion on my health and I can get some peace of mind.  The doctor, Dr. Svemanova, has a reputation as one of the top primary care physicians in the Capital District.  Hopefully this will work for me.

I arrive at the health offices and fill out the paperwork that will eventually fit in one of thousands of color-coded folders that rest in visible pull-out file cabinets.  Then I wait.

There are two things that are standard in doctors’ offices.  The first is that there will always be an issue of Highlights laying around.  Yep.  Goofus and Gallant.  The Timbertoes.  The adventures of Poozy, Woozy and Piddy.  Never changes.

The other thing that is standard in the waiting room is that, if I happen to find a magazine with an article that captures my interest, I will only be able to read it for about three sentences before the nurse comes out and calls, “Mr. Miller, we’re ready for you now.”

I went through all the preliminary examinations with the nurse.  I was measured, weighed, drained, briefed, debriefed, indexed, collated, and everything short of being bent, folded, spindled or mutilated.

Then Dr. Svemanova came into the room.  “How are we today, Mr. Miller?” she asked, in an accent that came from somewhere outside of Vladivostok.

I explained my situation.  I should not have lost all this weight so quickly.  Not in a month and a half.

“Yes, that is a very quick weight loss,” she murmured.  She then set me up with appointments for a blood draw, and to have me come back in a week for further examination.

“Oh, and I’m going to put you in touch with a gastroenterologist,” she said.

“What for?”

“There are three things that could cause you to lose weight this quickly.  It could be stress, but that’s a long shot.  It could be we need to change your diabetes medicines.”

“So what’s the third?”

“I’m sending you to the gastroenterologist to rule out the possibility of colon cancer.”

Oh my God no.  I don’t even want to think of cancer as a zodiac sign or as the title of a Henry Miller novel, let alone as something this serious.

“Mr. Miller,” Dr. Svemanova assured, “we just want to rule out the possibility of colon cancer, we’re not saying that you have it.  Men should be checked for colon cancer at the age of 50.  You’re currently 47.  I don’t want to wait three years, if there is the possibility of colon cancer, then we want to make sure it’s taken care of early.  Colon cancer is curable if it’s caught early.”

Still, there’s been plenty of cancer in my family – mostly lung cancer and emphysema.  It’s one of the reasons why I’ve never smoked, although I will stand outside in the cold with my friends if they ever have to smoke – just so they’re not smoking by themselves and feeling like outcasts.

But colon cancer?

So in the seven days between that initial visit and a follow-up with Dr. Svemanova, I went to the hospital phlebotomy department and had my blood drawn – yes, they had copies of Highlights magazine, and I was about to sink my teeth into an article on the resurgence of the model railroad hobby – when the phlebotomist called me in for a blood draw.  So much for that article.

Then on Thursday, I visited the  gastroenterologist, a specialist by the name of Dr. Dreyneaux.  She and I spoke for several minutes, and we agreed to set up a future appointment for a colonoscopy and a gastronomy (the doctor assured me both procedures could be done at the same time, and that different tubes would be used – that’s a relief).

Then came Friday morning, February 11.  I met with Dr. Svemanova again.  She printed out a prescription list of new medicines that would become part of my new dietary regimen, and that the medicines should control the weight issues and would also help keep my medical conditions in check.  I also need to be more observant of dietary restrictions, especially when it involves my health and well-being.

Her diagnosis – my current medicinal routine needed an update, and I had to find some way to reduce my personal stress levels.

In all honesty, I’m glad that I know what caused the weight loss, and that it can be controlled more effectively.

But it’s still extremely unnerving.  And the fact that had I not, on a lark, stepped on that weight scale at Brown’s Brewing, I may never have known how serious things were.  I know people have said to me, “Oh Chuck, you look like you’ve lost weight, you look good,” and I often brushed that off as some backhanded compliment that people will try to say something nice if they don’t want to say how they really feel about me.   It’s that inferiority complex that keeps me from believing that a compliment is truly a compliment.

And with that, I send a couple of messages to you, my readers.  If at any time in your life something doesn’t feel right with your body, get it checked out.  Don’t ignore it.  I’m still going to get those “oscopy” procedures taken care of later this year, and that’s very important – and for now, I have to consider what this new medical mixture is going to do with my health and with my life.

I swear, there are days when I think Atlas has a lighter load than do I.